Alice in Wonderland is one of my favourite childhood books. I love it so much, I have seven different copies, one of which is vintage.
The book, Alice in Wonderland, starts with a young girl, Alice, sitting on a bank and watching her sister read a boring book with no pictures or conversations. Seeing a white rabbit passing by, she follows it down a rabbit hole. The rabbit walks and talks and has a pocket watch. Alice falls down and down the rabbit hole, all the while having an interesting conversation with herself, and ends up in a large entrance hall. There is a small door beyond which is a beautiful world, but Alice is to big to pass through it. She experiments with eating and drinking various items until she is finally small enough to gain entry to Wonderland.
Wonderland is a strange and mysterious world filled with unusual…
Here are a few photographs from my travels in South Africa:
Cango Caves, OudtshoornWaterfall at Tsitsikamma National ParkSunset at Madikwe National ParkJohannesburg street lined with jacaranda treesField of flowersOne of my Save the Planet cakes depicting a fish with a face mask wrapped around its tail and choking on a plastic glove
A few days before we were due to fly to the UK for Christmas in December, we decided to cancel our trip. The weather was terrible and there were lots of strikes happening. The most crucial of those strike actions for us was the NHS as Michael had just recovered for three months of chronic illness and two operations. My mother is also 84 and I didn’t want to risk going somewhere where healthcare could be an issue in a crisis. Instead, we went to Welgevonden Private Game Reserve from 19 December to 22 December. It was all planned so I would be home in time to host Christmas Eve at our home.
I haven’t written about this trip, although it was amazing. The reason is that Terence started getting sick with headaches on 23 December, the day after we got home. His illness, which culminated in him being admitted into intensive care in hospital on 4 January with meningitis, put a huge shadow over this holiday. I just didn’t feel like revisiting anything in the lead up to that dreadful few weeks when he was in such a bad way in the hospital. The doctor says he’s made a full recovery and finally I am able to share a bit about this trip.
The link to my poem for a Vocal challenge is below.
Entrance to our roomView of Welgevonden from our bedroomBedroom showing the large doors
We saw some wonderful game at Welgevonden and I also wrote several new poems that are included in my new poetry collection, Lion Scream.
Here are a few of the large animals we saw.
ElephantWhite lionessCape buffaloA large insect called a corn cricket greeted us one night. It was waiting on the door step. They jump …A large lizard sunning itself on a rock
My poem on Vocal: The Watcher
I wrote an epistolary poem for a Vocal challenge. It is a letter to a Game Ranger from The Leopard in the Tree. You can read it here: The Watcher
Colleen Chesebro interviews Kaye Lynne Booth, publisher and co-editor of Poetry Treasures 3: Passions. A link to my recent Meet the Poet post is also included in the post. Thank you, Colleen, and happy birthday.
Picture of bunches of tiny yellow blossoms on a large treePicture of a large white toadstoolPicture of a baby loerie that has just learned to fly in the branches of our olive treePicture of white and dark pink cosmos with a beePicture of a small green caterpillar with a red stripe down its back on one of my succulentsI like this picture of a yellow wild flower and a dandelion growing between the pavers
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a semi-autobiographical novella written by Dai Sijie, a Chinese French author and film maker. The book was published in 2000 in French and in English in 2001.
The book is set during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution that occurred in the People’s Republic of China between 1966 and 1976. The programme was implemented by Mao Zedong after his return to the centre of power in 1966 and followed his period of self-abstention and bowing down to less radical leadership in the wake of the failed Mao-led Great Leap Forward (Second five-year plan to convert China from an agriculturally led society to a communist society through the formation of people’s communes) which resulted in the Great Chinese Famine during which an estimated 15 million to 55 million people died of starvation (1959 to 1961). The purpose of the Cultural Revolution was to preserve Chinese communism by purging any remaining aspects of capitalism and Chinese traditional culture from Chinese society.
The book is the story of two teenage boys, Ma, the narrator, and Lou, his best friend, who are assigned to a re-education programme through labour and are sent to a mountain called “Phoenix of the Sky” near Tibet. The villagers spend their lives growing rice and mining coal, both of which are physically relentless occupations that wear down the boys in body and spirit.
The story begins with the teens having just arrived at their assigned village and suffering through the headman’s inspection of their belongings. He is inspecting Ma’s violin with great suspicion. The reader quickly understands that Lou is the more forward and quick thinking of the two as well as a natural leader, when he saves the instrument by persuading the headman to let Ma play it for him. The reader also discovers that Ma is a good musician.
The boys’ miserable situation has arisen due to both their fathers being named ‘enemies of the state’ due to their education and occupations (Ma’s father is a doctor and Lou’s father is a famous dentist) and both youngsters’ despair of ever returning to the city. The re-education programme is viewed by both as a punishment and a permanent relocation and situation.
Lou has a great talent for storytelling and uses it to ingratiate both youngsters into the community. Over time, the headman sends the boys to the closest town with a cinema to view films and come back and retell them to the villagers. Through their story telling, the pair meet the ‘little seamstress’, the daughter of the local tailor and the ‘reigning beauty’ in the region. Lou ends up having a sexual relationship with her and is in love with her, but he feels she is not sufficiently educated and cultured for him.
The boys meet another youngster, Four Eyes, who is also being re-educated and living in a neighbouring village. Four Eyes is the son of a well-known poet and is finding life in the village even more difficult as a result of his thick glasses and very poor eyesight. By accident, the two boys discover that Four Eyes has a suitcase full of banned books and manage to manipulate Four Eyes into lending them two books. Lou memorises the books so that he can relate them to the little seamstress in a bid to expand her horizons and uplift her.
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress explores the themes of love, coming of age, reading, education, censorship and beauty through the experiences of three teenagers during the period of the Cultural Revolution in China.
While the book is based to a certain extent on the author’s experiences in China during this time, it is a work of fiction.
I found this book to be fascinating. I learned a huge amount about life in China during the Cultural Revolution and the suppression of knowledge and education which always seems to result during social revolutions. The characters are beautifully and sensitively portrayed, and their anxieties, struggles, and experiences were engaging and enlightening.
Quotations that intrigued me
“I was carried away, swept along by the mighty stream of words pouring from the hundreds of pages. To me it was the ultimate book: once you had read it, neither your own life nor the world you lived in would ever look the same.”
“The sheer audacity of our trick did a lot to temper our resentment against the former opium growers who, now that they had been converted into “poor peasants” by the communist regime, were in charge of our re-education.”
“”So are you weeping tears of joy?” I said.
“No. All I feel is loathing.”
“Me too. Loathing for everyone who kept these books from us.””
Today, I am delighted to introduce talented author and poet, D.L. Finn, whose new book, In the Tree’s Shadow, is available for pre-order on Amazon.
Welcome, Denise!
Introduction
Thank you, Robbie, for having me here to discuss my upcoming release, In the Tree’s Shadow.
Today I’m happy to share the new book trailer. I put it together on Canva, which I find easy to work with. They have access to the needed images and have a selection of music to choose from, but I went with my husband’s song, “Soar.”
There are twenty-seven stories, and I could only highlight a few in the video and blurb. During the coming weeks, there will be posts that will focus on twenty-one stories from the book.
Here’s the book trailer:
Blurb
A collection of short stories where dreams and nightmares co-exist.
Nestled inside these pages, you’ll meet a couple in their golden years who take a trip with an unexpected detour, a boy desperate to give his brother the Christmas gift he asked for, a girl with a small glass dragon who is at the mercy of her cruel uncles, or a young mother who has the same dream about murder. You’ll be introduced to worlds where people get second chances and monsters might be allowed their desires while angels and dragons try to help. Happy endings occur, but perspective can blur the line between good and evil in these twenty-seven tales. Since the stories vary between 99 to 12k words, whether you have only five minutes or an entire evening to settle into reading, there is something that will suit your time and taste.
A small angel’s glow reflected on a door in our hallway.
I always have a nightlight on when I sleep since I’m still fearful of what may be in the darkness.
My review of A Long Walk Home: A Christmas Novelette
Its Christmas Eve and Kenzie’s boss has closed the office, forcing her to go home and face the start of Christmas alone. Kenzie has always loved Christmas and been the first in line to bake and join in activities to promote the Christmas spirit, but not this year. Following the deaths of both her parents a few years previously, Kenzie has met and become engaged to Heath. Their wedding date was set for this Christmas Day. Heath had proved to be unfaithful and unreliable and left Kenzie, becoming engaged to her best friend, Joy, shortly afterwards. Kenzie has lost her fiance and her best friend at the same time and, with no family, her life feels worthless and she has spiraled into a great depression.
This is a story about recognising people for what they are, overcoming great trials and tribulations, and forgiveness (Joy, not Heath). The storyline has several intriguing paranormal twists with guardian angels and evil spirits which give the book a much stronger good versus evil thread.
DL Finn is a good writer and has created characters with whom the reader can sympathise and relate. A lovely Christmas read with a feel good ending.
D. L. Finn is an independent California local who encourages everyone to embrace their inner child. She was born and raised in the foggy Bay Area, but in 1990 she relocated with her husband, kids, dogs, and cats to Nevada City, in the Sierra foothills. She immersed herself in reading all types of books but especially loved romance, horror, and fantasy. She always treasured creating her own reality on paper. Finally, surrounded by towering pines, oaks, and cedars, her creativity was nurtured until it bloomed. Her creations include children’s books, adult fiction, a unique autobiography, and poetry. She continues on her adventure with an open invitation to all readers to join her.
Terri’s Sunday Stills prompt for this week is Peekaboo – Who sees you?
I manage to find a few fun photographs for this theme.
Michael peeping through the bubblesGreg peeking from behind the concrete blocksLion brothers peeping out from behind a bushFlowers peeping out from among the leavesA lioness peeping out from behind a bushAn elephant peeping out from behind a bush
Welcome to Thursday Doors! This is a weekly challenge for people who love doors and architecture to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos, drawings, or other images or stories from around the world. If you’d like to join us, simply create your own Thursday Doors post each (or any) week and then share a link to your post in the comments below, anytime between 12:01 am Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). If you like, you can add our badge to your post.
Victorian coach from the York MuseumThere only seem to be doors at the back – interesting
Airplanes at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, UK
Ox Wagons at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria, South Africa
Lastly, Sir Chocolate drives a car, made entirely from cake and sweets. His rocket ship is built from biscuits and powered by bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar mixed with milk.
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