Reading and exploring with Hugh in 2024, part 3

And what better way to start a new thread than with a flower?



The Eastern Cape form of Gazania krebsiana (Terracotta Gazania) in Addo Elephant National Park, 10 October 2016.

Happy new thread! And I like the cheer of the yellow flowers.

Happy new thread and thanks for the flower picture. Gazanias are great annuals here.

>1 hfglen: Happy New Thread, and I love the picture.
#thereisalwaysanelephant

:-)

Happy new thread! The flowers are really pretty.

Happy new thread, Hugh!

>1 hfglen: Happy new thread! And thank you for the sunny photo, on an overcast London day.

>2 jillmwo: -- >7 Sakerfalcon: Thank you all! The nice thing about growing that Gazania here is that they're essentially bombproof, and survive grotty soil, being parked on and most other unpleasantnesses. However that one was growing wild and relatively stress-free.

>4 pgmcc: You are, of course, right. Elephants can always be found when you need one.



Addo, again.
#thereisalwaysanelephant

>1 hfglen: Happy New thread! What a lovely plant.

>9 hfglen: Ha!

>9 hfglen:
You are a true believer. The Elephant Awareness is strong in this one.

To the River's End. There is no visible publication date on this book by Lawrence G. Green, but it evidently dates from the very early 1950s, and reports on some considerably earlier travels. Essentially, it traces the course of the Orange (now Gariep) River from Upington to the mouth, but includes a wide swathe of country on both sides of the river. For example, the first chapter starts at Union's End, where South Africa, Botswana and Namibia meet, and from the activities described it clearly refers to a time before the National Park (now Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park) was proclaimed in 1931. From Upington, on the river, to the entrance to the park is an almost-straight road of 286 km; from there a very winding road in the bed of the (usually dry) Nossob River runs for some 150 km to Union's End, a total distance that works out to well over 250 miles, and not much less as the crow flies. There are also chapters on Bushmanland, the vast dry area south of the River, and the Sperrgebiet, the diamond area in Namibia between Lüderitz and the river mouth. All in all, an enjoyable read.

New thread, new elephant :D Love it.

Picture time! Durban Botanic Garden is often host to some unusual birds. I ducked out of their Symposium on Thursday and saw these:



African Spoonbills. This lake often has Pelicans, but not right then.

Apologies for the lousy picture; I wanted a wide-angle view of something else, and so only took the lens least suited to pictures of shy birds.

Well, one site consulted says that African Spoonbills usually weigh in at about 3 pounds, but that their wing span can be up to 40 inches. (That wing span seems big to me, but I have no real idea.) Do these birds feed by dive-bombing their prey in the water or do they stand in the water and pick up stray crawfish from the stream bed or march bottom?

Somehow that seems a bit light, but I could easily believe a bit more for the wingspan -- they're big birds! They stand in the water and probe for small wriggly things; we don't have freshwater crawfish here, at least not that this seafood-eating human knows of.

>14 hfglen: How lucky for you that you got a glimpse! (And a photo!)

>14 hfglen:
Super picture. I have always been fascinated by spoonbills. I have only ever seen them in pictures.

>14 hfglen: Great picture!

>18 pgmcc: I'd love to say "Come to sunny Durbs and see them for real", but honesty bids me say they're not that regular visitors to the Garden.

>17 clamairy: I agree, but still wish I'd taken a tele lens along!

>19 Sakerfalcon: Thank you!

The Cape of Good Intent (1969), reread. Jose Burman is in many ways Lawrence G. Green's successor. He also writes accurate, meticulously researched stories of the history of the Western Cape in a style that is delightfully easy to read. But where necessary he goes out and walks the old (or allegedly old) routes to determine exactly where they were. In the present book, he walks the alleged 18th-century route of the 'Ou Kaapse Weg" (Old Cape Road, from Steenberg behind the Constantia Estate over the Silvermine mountain to a crossroad halfway between Fish Hoek and Noordhoek, both on the South Peninsula. The present road was built in the mid-1960s, as I well remember. What he found was not, in fact, a road but an incomplete bridle path, and 18th-century sources make it quite clear that the route used then was the same as the present main road to Simonstown, and not over the mountain. Mr Burman's books are a delight to read and revisit.

Was I inspired to do anything? Yes: to revise my family-history notes on some members of Better Half's family.

I have just read a story I think Peter might rather like.



This is the head of the Franschhoek valley seen from the top of Franschhoek Pass. The area was settled by French Huguenots in 1688, and is now one of the most civilised (and expensive!) places in the country. The foot of the (blacktop) pass is visible coming out of the town on the right, and there is a curve halfway up on the left; this is the fourth pass over these mountains. The farms below produce, unsurprisingly, some of South Africa's best and most expensive wines. And so to the story.

AFAIK the gravel tracks in the centre between the dams and the camera are the remains of the second and third passes. The first, I gather, went up the valley behind the curve in the mountain on the left. It was called Olifantspad, because it was made long before history began by elephants and eland moving between their summer and winter ranges. And now you know why I think this factoid might appeal to Peter.

>22 hfglen:
Hugh, you are correct. Even more evidence that there is always, and even that there always was, an elephant.

Beautiful picture.

>22 hfglen: Great picture, thank you.

>22 hfglen: Another lovely photo. I should look for South African wines at my local shop.

Edited to add: They have nine different wines from South Africa, but only two are white wines. I will definitely be trying one of those.

>25 clamairy: As a matter of " 'satiable curtiosity", what are they? Export brands, or estates we know here?

ETA: Peter will have recognised a quote from the Elephant's Child, no doubt.

Here you go, Hugh.

>27 clamairy: Ta muchly! Looked in my now rather elderly (2013) Platter's South African Wines, and these are all pretty good. Pick of the crop may be the Boekenhoutskloof; Platter gives the 2010 vintage 5 stars, which is a rare accolade. Note that the Spier is a local cultivar bred in Stellenbosch (Pinot Noir cross Cinsault); it's rare as hen's teeth outside South Africa. I had to catch my breath when I saw 'Meerlust' in the list; when I was courting Better Half the Meerlust dam was the first landmark after the railway crossing after turning off the freeway from Cape Town (where I lived at the time) to Stellenbosch (where she lived); the dam was instantly recognizable by a wind-pump half-drowned in the water. Spier is a kilometre or two nearer Stellenbosch on the same road. Unfortunate none of your wines come from the Franschhoek valley.

>28 hfglen: Thanks for the info, and the quick trip down memory lane. The only one I am likely to try is the Ken Forrester Petit Chenin Blanc. I do love red wines but I never seem to be able to sleep after I drink them.

>29 clamairy: Although listed as Stellenbosch, Ken Forrester's place is actually nearer Somerset West -- though the two towns are only about 20 miles apart. He's known for his Chenin Blanc, but the Petit range is his "cheap series". My elderly Platter lists the Chenin in this series as "2012: unready"; other wines in the series rate 2 or 3 stars. His top Chenins are 4.5 and 4 stars.

>30 hfglen: Are you saying I shouldn't bother? I will look it up on my wine app Vivino to see what the ratings are like before I purchase it.

Edited to add: Vivino says it's a poor match for my taste buds. The reviews are 3.6 out of five stars, with almost everyone saying it's tart with tastes of lemon citrus and green apple. So that's probably not my bag. I like crisp and dry, but I am not crazy about tart which is one of the reasons why I don't love the Australian Sauvignon blancs.

>31 clamairy: Best advice: try it and see. He evidently didn't get to sample the 2012 before the book went to press. The other Ken Forrester Chenins are described as "tangy", which may indicate that you'd be happier with something else. Beach House evidently came along after 2013 -- the brand is not mentioned at all in the book I'm using; however you may wish to check that one in Vivino.

>32 hfglen: Vivino says I won't like Beach House either, but that's cheaper so I might give it a try anyway. If it's too tart I will just throw some sliced peaches into it.

Is it a problem with LT or the usual crummy service from the fibre company that the Junk Drawer appears to collapse while adding a picture, and refuses to give me a link that I need to post a picture in here?

>34 hfglen: I last used the junk drawer last week and it was fine for me then.

>35 Karlstar: Thank you. Whatever the problem was, this morning it's cured.

And so I can offer you an Egyptian Goose, seen recently in Durban Botanic Garden. They're common throughout the Durban area and much further afield. They are also just as noisy and messy as their Canadian cousins (Sorry, Canada!).

Waters of the Western Cape (1970), in which Jose Burman traces the course and history of rivers in the Western Cape from the Olifants in the north to the Breede in the east. His area is the winter-rainfall region, which does not completely coincide with the present province of the same name. Nonetheless, the reader is treated to accurate (if now a bit dated) history and geography in Mr Burman's easy-to-read style. In this day and age one may raise an eyebrow at his insistence that every drop of water in every river should be used for humans at the cost of the local wildlife. Fortunately the Powers That Be have shown themselves a bit more aware of other beings' needs.

Would I recommend this book: Yes, with a reservation about its age.
To whom: Peter, and intending or recent visitors to the Western Cape.

>36 hfglen: It looks like a combination of a duck and a goose! Do you have gaggles of them wandering around? We had so many at work they had to put up fake coyotes.

>38 Karlstar: Yes, just like the Canada geese at Kew. And just as noisy. In Durban Bot. Garden they're somewhat shy of humans, which may tell you something uncomplimentary about the humans.

>36 hfglen: I've never seen one of those before! Cool.

>36 hfglen:
Lovely shot. A very impressive looking bird.

>38 Karlstar: Fake coyotes? >36 hfglen: I'd never heard of an Egyptian Goose before. (If there were a question on Final Jeopardy, I'd have lost big time.) Are they native to South Africa (by which I mean, did they migrate in naturally)?

>42 jillmwo: A plastic coyote on a short stick, stuck in the ground in front of the office building and moved around from time to time. It liked to hang around with the fake owls on the top of the buildings.

>43 Karlstar: Oh, that's where they get the plastic joke poops.

>42 jillmwo: Yes, their natural range is roughly all of Africa.

>36 hfglen: They are now common in the UK (probably introduced as an ornamental species). I see them every day as I walk to work through the park. In breeding season there is a pair who stand on the roof of one of our buildings and honk loudly, stating their claim to ownership!

>45 hfglen: and >46 Sakerfalcon:. But are they aggressive in the same way that Canadian Geese can be. My husband has never gotten over my getting out of a car and stomping my foot at a goose that was standing in the middle of the roadway, thereby impeding our morning drive to the commuter train station. I agreed with him that it was a foolish thing to do, but the goose did end up moving.

>47 jillmwo: The Durban ones (mostly) aren't. The ones in the Garden were much inclined to get out of the way rather than pose.

>47 jillmwo: I suspect that if you try to get too close to their goslings then you'd be hissed at, but otherwise they are okay.

#therewasalwaysanelephant department:



Clanwilliam Dam, just on the western fringe of the town of the same name. The river feeding the dam is the Olifants, so called because when Simon van der Stel went exploring up the west coast in about 1685, there was a small herd of elephants ready to "welcome" him on the banks of this river.

So High the Road (1963). Some of the roads have changed since Jose Burman wrote this book, but the mountains haven't. The Romance of Cape Mountain Passes (2002) covers the same ground, is much more recent and has better pictures. But Burman's writing remains an interesting, easy read, and he has often researched the obscurer passes by walking them himself. I'm glad to have both to refer to.

Wine of Constantia (1979). Somebody is clearly having a completist re-read of all possible Jose Burmans. This one is a history of arguably the Cape's most famous wine farm from the time it was first granted to Simon van der Stel c. 1679 to the time of publication. Since then, KWV has reverted from being a "dead-hand" control board to its proper function of marketing Cape wines, and the Constantia control board has become a trust looking after a much-visited and -loved National Monument. Platter's Guide devotes much red ink (sign of habitually 4- to 5-star wines) to all the constituent farms of Van der Stel's estate, and Klein Constantia is again making Vin de Constance, which was much loved by Europe's crowned heads, not least Napoleon in exile on St. Helena.

Where to Walk in the Cape Peninsula (1967) shows signs of its age. Most of the walks are now in the Table Mountain National Park, and readers would be well advised to check with SANParks about security before trying any of them. There have been problems in the recent past.

>50 hfglen:
Fantastic picture and post. By the way, a friend of mine uses the name Clanwilliam. A relative of hers used to use it as a pen name when weiting humorous columns.

>52 hfglen: I just looked at the relevant author page and it seems as if he was prolific, turning out a book a year once he hit his stride in 1966. Are you working through a library's collection in your re-reading of Burmans or do you already have a number of his books there in the home library?

>54 pgmcc: In the 18th century this place rejoiced in the name of Jan Disselsvlei, but in 1814 the then Governor, Sir John Cradock (we have one of those, too, in the Eastern Cape) re-named the place after his father-in-law, the Earl of Clanwilliam. Now we start the complicated bit. In 1819 the British government decided that they needed to create a buffer between the existing residents of the Cape Colony and the Xhosa, who were migrating south-westwards at the time. So they subsidised some 4000 migrants from all parts of the UK. These arrived the next year, and the school history I was taught made much of the 1820 Settlers, most of whom were placed on small scraps of land in the Eastern Cape with the idea that they would establish farms that looked like the Home Counties. In that way the authorities demonstrated that they knew nothing about farming, less about their chosen settlers, and even less about the Eastern Cape. Surprisingly, the Settlers survived and most of them thrived, leaving many descendants (there are no less than four of them in my family tree). And so back to the story. When the Settlers arrived in Cape Town, the Acting Governor, Sir Rufane Donkin, sent four Irish parties northwards rather than eastwards, and settled them in the Clanwilliam area. Few of these Irish Settlers had ever farmed, and the edge of Namaqualand is not suited to tiny farms. And so the Irish were Not Happy, and when the management offered them the opportunity to move to the Eastern Cape, all but two of them left.

>55 jillmwo: My own collection, but I may later go and mine the local library.

And another thing. (Maybe I need jillmwo's calming expertise here.)

The book I want to read is The Conservationists and the Killers, which is a history of the Wildlife Society of South Africa, an organisation that has done much excellent work for conservation. The pictures promise much, and the two or three pages I've read look inviting BUT
if the authors and publishers want their book to be read, why on earth did they design it with pages of almost A3 size (32 x 23.5 cm)? In hardcover? Weighing 1.6 kg? It seems to me that in going for "the ultimate coffee-table book", they have done their utmost to ensure that their message does not reach anybody.

>58 hfglen: But it's a lovely book. On your coffee table. Visitors will admire your environmental caring AND your decorating acumen. You want to read it? Lean over your coffee table. (But you'll be the odd man out trying to actually READ a coffee table book. At the risk of making an overly sweeping generalization, book designers assume the text is the least important element in such instances because the assumption is that the photographs are the major appeal.)

However, I certainly agree with you that trim sizes are a source of on-going friction. Printers wish there were fewer to pick from. Paper manufacturers may wish the same thing. *sigh*

>56 hfglen: Thank you for the picture and the history.

>56 hfglen: What >60 Karlstar: said!

Family's just been watching a series called Tread the Globe on YouTube, in particular the episode where they go through Eswatini, which we grew up calling Swaziland. They reminded me of this place, which is the waterhole at the rest-camp reastaurant in Hlane Royal National Park, which is in the north of the country near the Mozambique border. Peter will be interested that the name of the restaurant is Ndlovu, the siSwati word for the animal in the picture.

>62 hfglen:
Fantastic picture and great post.

Yhank you!

Has anyone else had the experience of never quite knowing what you're about to click on, because your mouse-hand is being enthusiastically and randomly head-butted by a purring, adoring cat?

>64 hfglen: No, but I would like to :)))

>64 hfglen:. But think of the places you'll go! (Apologies to Dr. Seuss...)

>64 hfglen: or what I might type? or accidentally order? :)

>67 catzteach: Two of our Feline Overlords also think that a computer keyboard makes a fine pedestal for Kitty to sit on, and the screen makes perfect backlighting to show them at their best ...

>64 hfglen: hehe yep :)

>64 hfglen: My cat ignores the mouse, sometimes sits in front of the keyboard, but more often likes to sit behind me on the chair.

>64 hfglen: My cat was firmly banished from my mouse because he attacked all claws out.

>71 MrsLee: Mister Mistoffelees is not interested in the mouse, but wants Quality Attention from his pet hoomin.

The Voyage of the Challenger was produced (intentionally? it doesn't say) in time for the centenary of the start of this scientifically important voyage. The Challenger itself, with captain and crew, belonged to the Royal Navy, and on this journey carried half-a-dozen zoologists and oceanographers. They left Southampton in 1872 and circumnavigated the world more-or-less eastwards, though they crossed the Atlantic four times on their way to Cape Town, and again on their way home. Every few days they stopped to take soundings, also recording water temperatures and sampling the marine life at various depths, and the sea-floor sediments. One of the first things they did was to disprove the then-popular theory that marine life only extended to a depth of some 300 fathoms; they regularly found new species at ten times that depth. They saw the Antarctic in all its bleakness, and tropical islands of the Pacific in all their beauty, and much else besides, eventually returning home in 1875. It is hardly surprising that their scientific reports fill 50 hefty volumes! This book is a workmanlike, suitably slimmed-down account suitable for the general reader, mostly illustrated by the expedition's own pictures.

Time to give the elephants a rest!



This is Stretch Court, which is part of the Drostdy complex in Graaff-Reinet, Eastern Cape. It was built in the early 19th century (so Cape Georgian style) as part of what passed for government on the eastern fringe of the Cape Colony. When the local magistrate moved out of the Drostdy, it acquired a regrettable Victorian upper floor and became a hotel, in which guise I can just remember it from when I was very small. That hotel went bust (not surprisingly; it was awful) and the building was massively cleaned up and sensitively restored (I think by Anton Rupert, who grew up in the town and loved it), then re-opened as a 5-star hotel of immense character. IIRC Stretch Court started life as slave quarters, but became expensive accommodation for travellers when the hotel was re-opened.

Your photo and blurb were sufficiently intriguing that I went and looked up the hotel. That's a lovely, lovely setting. (But only 48 rooms. Definitely an exclusive kind of place.)

>75 jillmwo: Thank you. Graaff-Reinet is indeed a beautiful place, with more than its fair share of historic buildings. And a good assortment of comfortable accommodation at less-than-5-star prices, though if you stay in the tented camp at Camdeboo National Park just outside the town you need to know that they have a permanent plague of monkeys.



Now, about 2/3-way up on the left you will see, if you look closely, the large Dutch Reformed church that is the centre of the town. Church Street, the main street, heads straight across the picture to the right and is unfortunately rather well hidden in this view. But you can see two cross streets, one behind the church and another (more visible) to the right of it. The block of Church Street to the right of this is marked by a grey buildins and a complex with red roofs. Then there is a short street running from Church Street to a Cape Dutch building in the distance. (That was the manse, and is now the Hester Rupert Art Museum, which is notably home to an enormous, elderly grape vine.) The hotel in #74 is the white buildings between this street and some green trees.

A thought for MrsLee, concerning Lord Peter Wimsey, that I think she'll enjoy. We are told in the postscript to Gaudy Night (at least the version on Faded Page) that the Wimsey coat of arms features three white mice on a black background. This afternoon I was reading Cor Pama's (1973) dry, academic book on Vintage Cape Town, when I came across his account of the hatchment of arms of one Wynand Willem Muys (at this point Dutch-speaking readers will know the end of this story), after whom the Cape Town suburb and tourist trap of Muizenberg is named. Inevitably, it features three mice proper on a white background. It may be seen in the Groote Kerk in central Cape Town, and is illustrated in Pama's book.

>77 hfglen: That is a bit of whimsy. :)

>74 hfglen: >76 hfglen: Fascinating pictures.

>76 hfglen: Really cool overview!

>79 Karlstar: >80 jillmwo: Thank you both!

Portrait of Cape Town (1961). Brief vignettes of various parts of the "Mother City", illustrated with the author's own drawings. On the positive side, the writing is pleasant, and portrays the place the way it was before the country was hit by an unfortunate bout of prosperity unsullied by good taste. On the downside, she seems to have had a habit of drawing the architecture first and the people afterwards without banking the intersecting lines, resulting in a number of distressingly transparent "ghosts".

>82 hfglen: I think I like your comments about that book as much as I would like the book. :)

Finished my re-read of Vintage Cape Town, and concluded that although there is some good information there, it does rather come across as a "social climber's vade mecum". Which may partly be explained by the author's background: he wrote a long string of books on the genealogy and heraldry of upper-class Afrikaner families. He was a Hollander, and tends to write in the accent which he spoke, which can be disconcerting. It may also explain some of the typos in the text.

However. In search of family history or background to same, I thought it would be a good idea to read Theal's magisterial History of South Africa (mercifully, not all 11 volumes! Note to anybody trying to use the touchstone: there are at least three different titles used in the course of this essentially continuous work, and I chose the one with the most copies in LT). This one is very stuffily Victorian, and immensely long-winded.

PS. One thing that made an impression this time that I should have noted on previous readings of Vintage Cape Town. I had been led to believe that the oldest surname in this country was Bothma, the progenitor of that family having arrived a few years after Van Riebeeck (1652). Not so, says Pama, who would have known. Apparently there was a Cloete who stepped ashore with Van Riebeeck on 6 April 1652, and gave rise to numerous descendants, including the family who made Constantia wine famous and lived on the farm in the 18th and 19th centuries. My parents knew a couple of that name who lived in Oudtshoorn and seemed to me to be at least 200 years old (I was about 6 at the time). They were presumably part of the clan.

For this week's picture may I offer you this Darter, seen on a vlei near Wilderness in the Garden Route National Park, 10 September 2017.

Oh, that's great! Excellent shot.

>85 hfglen: 200 years old is very old.

Nice picture.

>86 hfglen:
Excellent shot.

>88 Karlstar: Looking back from nearly 70 years later, they were probably "only" about 80. But the oldest and least well-preserved people 6-year-old-me had ever met.

>86 hfglen: Excellent capture of an elegant bird.

>86 hfglen: Oh, I love this!

>87 Sakerfalcon: >89 pgmcc: >91 MrsLee: >92 clamairy: Thank you, all.

I am delighted to read in The Conservationists and the Killers that from 1929 to 1955 the warden of the Hluhluwe Game Reserve was one Captain Harold Potter. Despite the opposition of numerous "Voldemorts" and "Fudges", he managed to save the southern African rhinos from extinction.

This week, may I introduce you to a Crowned Lapwing?



A widely distributed bird; this one seen in the Addo Elephant National Park on 10 October 2016.

>95 hfglen: Another beauty.

>95 hfglen:
Beautiful!

ETA: Did you see that I did not mention the location.
#thereisalwaysanelephant

>95 hfglen: A very smart fellow! Does he have the tuft on the back of the head that European lapwings do?

>95 hfglen: A lovely bird :)

>96 clamairy: >97 pgmcc: >98 Sakerfalcon: >99 Alexandra_book_life: Thank you all very much!

>97 pgmcc: I thought the good denizens of the pub would get tired of endless pictures of elephants, so looked for something else. Addo has a lot of diversity in a relatively small area.

>98 Sakerfalcon: No, he doesn't. Actually from the one picture I have of a bird on what passes for a nest (taken within a minute or 2 of this one), I rather think he's a she.

>95 hfglen: & >100 hfglen: I agree that it's a she. I mean, look at those long legs, and the way she wears her crown. Royalty or a super model I'm thinking. With that full chest I lean more towards royalty.

>95 hfglen: You may and thank you!

In Peter's thread I mentioned Mariannhill Monastery. It seemed to me that he and maybe others would be interested in a picture, since I went there some years ago (18 June 2016) on a guided tour with our local heritage society.



This is the entrance arch, seen from the inside (which is why the motto on the ridge of the roof seems to be "wrong way round"). We were told that EVERYTHING in the monastery, including the bricks, was made by the monks themselves.

>103 hfglen: Fascinating! Thank you for this photo.

>103 hfglen: Oh, that's lovely. Those operating in religious orders in times past frequently had to acquire surprising skills.

>103 hfglen:
Thank you for the picture, Hugh.

>103 hfglen: I do love red brick churches! Not that I enter them willingly anymore. :o)

>103 hfglen: What a beautiful church!

>103 hfglen: Very nice, thank you.

>103 hfglen: Beautiful!

>104 Alexandra_book_life: - >110 Sakerfalcon: Thank you all. You are most kind.

>107 clamairy: Here's the tower, with the chapel behind it.



The monks not only made the bricks and plans, but even the terracotta roundels between the arches.

... and here's the interior of the chapel.

>112 hfglen: I love this photo with the framing of the arch.

>113 hfglen: Is it still in use?

Great pictures.

>115 Karlstar: very much so.

ETA: They had some outstations mostly in the southern Drakensberg foothills. Most of these have been abandoned. Some years ago a member of the South African National Society by the name of Hugh Bland published a beautiful, expensive picture book on these, which doesn't come up in a LT search. If you or pgmcc want to be the first person on LT to have a copy, you could try contacting the SANS secretary to see if it's still available. Her name is Myra Boyes, and you'll find her at meboyes (at) saol.com.

>112 hfglen: & >113 hfglen: It's just lovely. And it looks somewhat similar to the church I attended as a child, believe it or not. Though mine is lacking the arches.



I don't believe that covered entryway was there when I was a kid.

>118 clamairy:
Well, they have had to deal with climate change since then and probably responded with the covered entryway.

>119 pgmcc: True. We do get a lot more drenching rains than we used to. Also I think they didn't mind the peasants standing out there when they built the church over a hundred years ago. 😂 Now they are looking for repeat customers.

>118 clamairy: Amazing! Yours looks like a cross between Mariannhill and St. John the Divine Anglican Church in Durban North. (Scroll down from the link to the second church.)

>121 hfglen: Yes, very similar.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our USAnian Dragoneers!

>123 hfglen: Thank you!

>123 hfglen: Thank you, and may your day be lovely as well. :)

>123 hfglen: Thanks!

>123 hfglen: Thank you! We managed the bird and the trimmings and were thankful for any number of things. Slept well and then this morning briefly considered pie for breakfast. (It's understood generally that the usual dietary rules fly out the window for the duration of the weekend..)

I'm almost a week late with the regular picture! Bearing in mind the season in the northern hemisphere, I thought you might like this one.



Snow on the Matroosberg, Western Cape, 20 September 2014. The road is the main one between Cape Town and Beit Bridge on the Zimbabwe border (and so ultimately to Cairo), seen here heading down the Hex River Pass out of the Karoo towards Cape Town. The Matroosberg is where students from Cape Town and Stellenbosch go skiing in winter. It's surprising to see snow this late here, only one day before the spring equinox.

>128 hfglen: Beautiful photo! I especially appreciated the blue sky ;)

>129 Alexandra_book_life: Thank you, Alexandra. The picture is from the edge of the Karoo (the name derived from a Khoi word roughly meaning "place of drought"), and so blue skies are the norm there. That's why SALT (the big astronomical telescope) is at Sutherland, about 100 miles away, and MEERKAT, the first stage of the South African part of the SKA, is not much further.

>128 hfglen: That's lovely, Hugh. Thank you for sharing.

>128 hfglen:. The road is the main one between Cape Town and Beit Bridge on the Zimbabwe border (and so ultimately to Cairo). Cape Town to Cairo seems as if it would be a really long road trip. Do folks do that?

>128 hfglen: Great picture, thank you for posting it.

Do you guys like photography??

>132 jillmwo: A few used to. The AA's Trans-African Highways published a complete set of maps and travel information back in the day, but right now I imagine the route is closed due to wars in the Sudan. That said, I was pleasantly surprised some years ago by the number of cars I saw in Nairobi with Gauteng (Johannesburg, Pretoria) plates. The full trip back in the day took 10 days - 2 weeks Cape to Nairobi, 3 months or more to Cairo.

Just in case Pete's suffering elephant-withdrawal symptoms, may I suggest this YouTube video and the following ones (seven as of when I post this). The curious thing is, when I "wur nobbut a nipper" there were only a few hundred elephants in the Kruger Park, and they were only to be seen in the relatively-far north, north of the Letaba River. Now there are over 12 000, and they're everywhere. Such as every few minutes in these videos.

>136 hfglen:
Well, you know what I would say. :-)

Your video is providing more evidence to support my statement.

It is interesting to hear the number of elephants has increased. The news we normally hear is amount the fight against poachers and how they are threatening the number of elephants.

Indeed, SANParks spends a fortune (together with the police and military) doing their best to ensure that the average poacher's life is as short as their prey's. And just at the moment, they seem to be winning. Certainly here and in Botswana the problem is too many rather than too few elephants. Sadly, a significant part of the Kruger elephant population is composed of "refugees" from Mozambique that understandably are jumpy and loathe humans of any kind. Addo elephants are much more laid-back.

>138 hfglen:. I wonder how long it might take for your "refugees" to relax? Elephants are not particularly stupid beasts. The question is whether (or how quickly) the message gets communicated by the Addo elephants that the newcomers need not be quite so jumpy. Has there been any discussion locally of that?

>139 jillmwo: Not that I'm aware of. It might be difficult for the Addo elephants to communicate across the distance -- they're about 1000 km away from Kruger.

We've just been watching an Annie Gray video on the cookery of Downton Abbey. She demonstrated a recipe for treacle tart, in the course of which she suggested that American viewers may need to use corn syrup if they can't get treacle / golden syrup. Question from Better Half for MrsLee or any other USAnian Dragoneer who cooks: can you really not get golden syrup as we can, from any supermarket?

>141 hfglen: I can't say I haven't heard of golden syrup, but no recipe I have tried has ever called for it, so I've never looked in a store for it. I saw a video on Facebook of how to make your own, and although I didn't read the whole post, or watch the video, it seemed like you just cook sugar until it browns, or maybe they were cooking a simple syrup until it browns.

>141 hfglen: I used to be able to find Lyle's Golden Syrup in the store when I lived in Poughkeepsie, NY, but not the stores here, that I've checked. I used to make 2 things that call for it, just haven't made one of them in a while and for the other, I substitute.

>142 MrsLee: >143 Karlstar: Thank you both, heartily. Here we can get Lyle's, made locally under licence, I believe by an outfit based a few miles north of Durban. We also get an essentially identical product called Illovo Golden Syrup, made by an outfit based a few miles south of Durban.

>141 hfglen: I don't remember the brand name but I have seen it in stores, especially when I lived in the Midwest. I've never made anything that called for it. I will try to remember to look the next time I go to a local supermarket. I don't even keep corn syrup in the house anymore. I use mostly Sugar in the Raw and honey for my own cooking. (And I buy 10 lb bags of regular sugar to make hummingbird nectar.)

>144 hfglen:. I just checked and it appears that one can obtain Lyle's Golden Syrup here in the States via Amazon. (Theoretically, my local Acme Supermarket claims to carry it, but they've been unreliable with regard to what they say they regularly carry and what is actually on the shelves.)

guys amazon keeps giving me wrong orders at my door..

And for Christmas, a warm kitchen scene in the Himeville Museum some years ago (5 June 2010).



Himeville is a small village nestled in the foothills of the Drakensberg, near the start of the Sani Pass (one of South Africa's most dramatic roads, and the only road link between here and Lesotho).

>148 hfglen: wow sounds interesting!

>148 hfglen: A very cozy scene. I don't often see a window behind a stove like that. Was that space always designed for a stove, or was it originally a fireplace? I've never seen a window in a fireplace. :)

>148 hfglen: It does look cozy. But like MrsLee, I'm just eyeing that stove. How much of that home-like space was it expected to heat as it cooked the mid-day or evening meal?

>148 hfglen: That's a great photo! Cozy scene indeed.

>151 jillmwo: The kitchen, which isn't all that big, at least. In winter, you have a point, as Himeville is relatively high up in the Drakensberg foothills and gets occasional snow.

Happy solstice (summer for Haydninvienna and me), everybody.

Richard mentioned daylight saving in his thread, which triggered a memory of an ill-thought-out campaign by a local budget airline (why am I not surprised that they collapsed during Covid?) to introduce daylight saving in this country. They failed to notice that our standard meridian is almost as far in the east of the country as you can go. So the good residents of Cape Town are subjected to some 48 minutes' worth of daylight saving year round -- a curse in winter!

>154 hfglen: Happy Summer to you, Hugh!

>154 hfglen:
Many happy returns of the Solstice.

>154 hfglen: Brisbane is also east of one of the standard meridians, but Queensland isn't as "wide" west to east as South Africa and the towns in western Queensland are not large anyway (furthest west is Camooweal, a thriving metropolis of 236 inhabitants). But of course a lot of Queensland is north of the Tropic and there would be little point in daylight saving there. One of the reasons for Queensland not doing daylight saving was allegedly that a certain former state premier thought that the sun shone out of his bum and he wasn't going to get up any earlier.

>157 haydninvienna:
LOL!

>157 haydninvienna: Bwahaha!

>157 haydninvienna: *snort*