The Pilanesberg mountain is an ancient volcanic structure, circular in shape, that rises from flat surrounding plains. It is formed by three concentric ridges or rings of hills, of which the outermost has a diameter of about 24 km.
“The crater of a long extinct volcano, where Pilanesberg is set, is a fascinating alkaline complex produced by volcanic eruptions some 1300 million years ago. It is one of the largest volcanic complexes of its kind in the world. Its rare rock types and structure make it a unique geological feature.”
It was very cold the morning we stopped at the viewing point for the Pilanesberg volcanic crater lake for tea.
Picture caption: TC and I in front of the lake and volcanic mountain ring viewPicture caption: The temperatures dropped so quickly the lake was steaming
This is my Youtube video of the mountain volcanic ring:
Picture caption: Red and white stripped bridge across a canal in Amsterdam. There are houseboats to the right of the picture Seven bridges sighting point on a canal in AmsterdamA boat coming through an enclosed bridge on a canal in Amsterdam
Picture caption: Book cover for A Nobel Bargain by Jan Sikes featuring a young man in old fashioned working clothes with a dog and an old fashioned vehicle.
What Amazon says
A true testament of character, resilience, and the magic of never giving up.
The year is 1948 and folks in the sawmill town of Crossett, Arkansas, work hard and play hard. Oliver Quinn does both. Oliver is the son of Irish immigrants who firmly believe in pursuing the American dream. His deepest desire is to play major league baseball. He only needs one chance to prove himself.
Rose Blaine is living in a nightmare where dreams don’t exist. She’s suffered for years at the hands of her violent moonshiner father and his partner. During a brutal attack, she must fight back or die. The aftermath is devastating.
Fueled by desperation, Rose strikes a life-changing bargain with Oliver. If he’ll take her and her brother to St. Louis, Missouri, she’ll introduce Oliver to her uncle, a baseball legend.
While their journey is fraught with unseen perils, they forge an unbreakable bond and make surprising allies.
When destiny throws them a curve ball, they must find the courage to create a hopeful future out of the ashes of shattered dreams with newfound fortitude.
My review
A Noble Bargain is a delightful tale that starts of with the main character, Rose, in one of the worst imaginable situations for a young woman and lightens and brightens considerably as it progresses, despite some dramatic events.
Rose and her two brothers, Harlan and Jack, are victims of their alcoholic father’s moonshine induced rages, their abused mother having passed away some years previously. Sadly, seventeen year old Rose, is also a victim of her father’s lecherous partner.
Oliver is the son of Irish immigrants who, despite suffering loss, are a loving and close knit family. He has a good job and is working hard to improve his situation and help support his family but he dreams of playing professional baseball. He has no idea how he could go about making this dream a reality.
Oliver meets Rose at a dance and is immediately taken with her. It quickly becomes apparent to Oliver that Rose’s home situation is far from idea and he sets out to try and help her and her brothers.
This is a lovely story about overcoming adversity and achieving dreams. I enjoyed it very much and would recommend it to all readers as everyone could use some upliftment and happiness in their choice of reading material.
The story is well written and the characters are well developed and believable. Rose is a strong minded individual who has drawn a very poor set of circumstantial cards in life. You just can’t help rooting for her and hoping for the best possible outcome.
I enjoyed the previous book, A Beggar’s Bargain, and it was nice to see those characters making an appearance in this second book.
Picture caption: Door featuring two fashionable young ladies having tea. This picture was provided by Willow Willers who blogs here: https://willowdot21.wordpress.com/
Sharing Tea (Shadorma)
Young ladies
Share tea and gossip
Dressed to kill
In big hats
And smart dresses with full skirts
One version of life
Three lion brothers we saw during our recent trip to Pilanesberg National Park.
Picture caption: This is the dominant brother. That is why he has a collar and is tagged. The tagging is so they don’t escape the park and wreak havoc in the surrounding community lands not to help the game rangers find them.Picture caption: This is the first of the brothers. A gorgeous boy.Picture caption: This is the third brother. Another gorgeous boy.Picture caption: Given their tender years (they don’t have proper manes yet as they are juveniles), these boys are HUGE!
I read to you, teaching you to thirst for knowledge
I show compassion to others, teaching you kindness
I encourage you to build on your strengths
Thereby giving you the tools to succeed in life
I encourage you to work hard on your weaknesses
Thereby demonstrating the power of perserverence
But, most of all my son, I love you
I put you first, I give you my time
Teaching you to be a giving and loving man
I’m sharing one photograph from my recent trip to the Pilanesberg National Game Reserve. We saw a leopard early in the morning. It was just getting light and the leopard sat like a queen on top of the rocks.
When I was a young girl I did not like to knit. I like to sew. I liked sewing so much that I designed an entire wardrobe for my younger sisters and my Barbie and Cindy dolls. I also hand sewed a dress for myself with a dropped waist and a frill around the bottom of the skirt. I liked to create. I created a dolls house out of a wooden tomato box and decorated it with doors, windows with views, and curtains all cut out of old magazines. But, I did not like to knit.
Unfortunately, the nuns thought that all young ladies should know how to knit. Not just passably. Oh no, they wanted us to knit well. To this end they ceaselessly gave us knitting tasks of greater complexity involving adding and dropping stitches, measuring, changing pearl stitch to garter stich and vice versa. They even made us learn ribbing and how to turn the heel of a sock. Oh, the incredible unkindness of it all to a girl who hated knitting.
The last knitting assignment I had was to knit a Pink Panther. The toy in question was not small. No, it was an significant trial of knitting reaching a height of 60 centimetres … if you followed the pattern. The assignment did not, however, give a required size for the horrid task. It provided a pattern and said a knitted Pink Panther had to be handed in on a certain date.
I left it and left it. Suddenly, it was the day before the knitting assignment was due. I spent the entire morning at school contemplating different ways of managing the disaster. Mom wouldn’t let me stay at home the following day and even if she did, I couldn’t do all that knitting in one day. And then inspiration struck.
When I got home I went straight to my room and got started knitting. I knitted and knitted and by the early evening, the Pink Panther parts were made. After dinner, I sewed the toy together and stuffed it. I sewed on the face. By bed time I was finished. I had a perfectly knitted and stuffed, 15 centimetre high Pink Panther. The pattern divided perfectly by 4.
The following year, the instructions were amended to include a required size of 60 centimetres. I still regard this as one of my greatest school triumphs. I wasn’t even marked down. Sister Agatha knew when she was outwitted.
Today, I have reviews of two delightful books for you.
The Rat in the Python Fashion
Picture caption: Cover of The Rat in the Python Fashion by Alex Craigie featuring a cartoon styled python with people inside a bulge in its belly.
What Amazon says
If you haven’t heard of a liberty bodice, believe that half-a-crown is something to do with impoverished royalty and never had the experience of slapping a television to stop the grainy black and white picture from rolling, then this series might not be for you. Please give it a go, though – I suspect that most of it will still resonate no matter where you were brought up!
Book 3 looks at fashion and how it’s changed since the end of WWII. From utility coats and twinsets, to schoolboys in short trousers with socks and garters. From the swinging sixties with its long, long hair and short, short skirts, to psychedelia and beyond.
The Rat in the Python is about Baby Boomers who, in the stability following the Second World War, formed a statistical bulge in the population python. It is a personal snapshot of a time that is as mystifying to my children as the Jurassic Era – and just as unrecognisable.
My review
I realised when I came to write this review that this is book 3 and I have skipped out book 2. They don’t have to be read in order so it doesn’t matter, but book 2 should not be missed as this is a terrific series.
This fascinating short read covers fashion in the UK from WWII to the current date. It actually even goes a little bit further back in the beginning with some interesting comments about fashion during the Edwardian era and I am very thankful that I never had to wear a corset. Being long waisted, this would have been really awful for me. Edwardian women did, however, look very sophisticated with their gorgeous hats and long skirted, tight waisted dresses.
With regards to fashion during WWII, this book reinforced a lot of information I had heard from my mother about the lack of buttons, silk stockings and other niceties and how girls found innovative ways of dealing with this problem. To quote: “Women dealt with the latter issue by painting their legs with special product or using gravy browning and getting a friend to draw a line down the back of the leg with an eyebrow pencil to resemble the seam.”
This book takes the reader on a journey through the austerity of the post war continuing rationing fashion scene when people dressed very formally but frugally with shirts that had replaceable collars and cuffs and continues to the modern ‘throw away’ society. The current culture in the UK is actually vastly different from here in South Africa where women still dress fairly conservatively and most certainly do not buy cheap clothing that is thrown away rather than washed. Poverty is still a big issue in Africa, but perhaps this is better than the consumeristic habits of the developed world that add so much to plastic and global warming problems. I found the changing trends in this regard discussed in this book to be thought provoking.
The book includes lots of interesting photographs and pictures to demonstrate the fashion statements made and is really a wonderful undertaking to preserve the history of fashion in the UK. An interesting and worthwhile read.
Dewdrops on the Soul: Poetry you will love by Dwight Roth
Picture caption: Cover of Dewdrops on the Soul: Poetry you will love by Dwight Roth featuring a red hibiscus flower covered in dewdrops
What Amazon says
Poetry must speak to the soul if it is to be remembered. The poems in this book are written in readable verse that is easily understood by the reader, yet challenging and thought provoking. Along with the poems are beautiful original color photos taken by the author that are used to enhance the poems. In addition to photos there are also original paintings done by the author. Poems in this collection are inspired by nature, nostalgia, and reflections on the meaning of life.
The author has published a poetry blog on Word Press since 2016 which you can view at. rothpoetry.wordpress.com
This is a great book to spend time getting lost in as you peruse through the many poems included here.
My review
This is the first collection of poetry and flash fiction I’ve read by Dwight Roth and it was a complete delight.
The poet has a wonderfully positive outlook on life and this reflects in every word he writes. The poems and prose pieces in this book made me feel happy and uplifted and you just can’t beat that feeling. The book also includes some wonderful paintings by the poet, photographs from his childhood and adult life, as well as some innovative handmade creations include what he termed to be a Jackleg guitar. Not a term I have heard before but it seems to fit this wonderfully artistic musical instrument.
I really enjoyed all the poems but a few standout ones for me were as follows: A Call for Change, Dad, Pop’s Garden, Red Bellied Woodpecker, Digital Wolly Worm, Night Train, Dandelion Stars, Trigger, Love and Cherry Delight, Family Memories, Where do you Belong? and Proud Vulnerability.
I highly recommend this beautiful collection and will leave you with the poem I loved the best as I also love and appreciate the beauty of dandelions.
Dandelion Stars “Aging flower wild and free Sunny yellow color gone Silver stars cover its head reflecting sunlight Beautiful seeds waiting for the breeze Like Nature’s poetry Blowin’ in the Wind across our minds Beauty for some Weeds for others Daylight stars waiting to be appreciated”
roberta-writes.com 