A Good Read

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy 
This is a heart-rending story of a family whose choices lead to some terrible consequences, a family saga, a forbidden love story, and a political drama, beautifully written, slightly elaborate and disjointed which distracts somewhat from the plot. Normally I’m ok with switching timelines, but I did get confused at times and had to refer back, I forgot what it was the characters were talking about. 

The year is 1969. In the state of Kerala, India, 7 year old fraternal twins Esthappen and Rahel fashion a childhood for themselves in the shade of the wreck that is their family. Their lonely, lovely mother, Aammu fled an abusive marriage to live with their blind grandmother, Mammachi, their beloved uncle Chacko, and their enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun and incumbent grand aunt). When Chacko's English ex-wife brings their daughter for a Christmas visit, the twins learn that “Things can change in a day”, a phrase that is repeated several times. It soon becomes clear that bad things are going to happen, the reader senses the foreboding.

As I was approaching the end of the book I kept thinking “it can’t end yet", I was expecting more explanation of what happened to Estha and Rahel. But then it clicked into place and although it wasn’t an ending with all the loose ends neatly tied up I did understand where their lives were going.

Although there is a lot of sadness it is nevertheless a beautiful well written story with immensely likeable characters. I thoroughly recommend it.

~Happy Reading ~

Polly x

Cambridge Take 2

In Feb 2018 my friend M and I had a lovely day in Cambridge. We wanted to visit Kings College but we ran out of time. No problem I thought we can always go again. So back in April this year M wasn't keen to go but my friend G was. The weather was glorious, we were all set for a good day - but ................................. Kings College was closed for filming, noooooooooo, my second trip and still I wasn't going to get to see Kings College, I was almost inconsolable. I had checked their website, but there was no mention about it being closed on that day. There was nothing we could do about it. And we had a lovely day, starting with the Botanic Garden. 

April saw the end of the Spring flowers but too soon for the summer ones.

Nevertheless it was all still very pretty.  

Courtesy of Befunky.com

Courtesy of Befunky.com

Flowers in the Glasshouses were putting on a beautiful display.

As were the trees

And the lake

Pembroke College

 Gifts For Interesting People ..... mmm amusing.

I think this was the Sedgwick museum, it was excellent

Emmanuel College

The Chapel, small but very pretty

Dining Hall

The grounds are very pretty
So that just leaves a third trip to plan and hopefully I will finally get to visit Kings College!

~ Be well ~

Polly x

A Good Read

Coffin Road by Peter May follows three perilous journeys.

A man is washed up on a deserted beach on the Hebridean Isle of Harris, barely alive and borderline hypothermic. He has no idea who he is or how he got there. The only clue to his identity is a map tracing a track called the Coffin Road. He doesn't know where it will lead him, but filled with trepidation he knows he must follow it.

A detective crosses rough Atlantic seas to a remote rock twenty miles west of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. With a sense of foreboding he steps ashore where three lighthouse keepers disappeared more than a century before - a mystery that remains unsolved. But now there is a new mystery - a man found bludgeoned to death on that same rock, and DS George Gunn must find out who did it and why.

A teenage girl lies in her Edinburgh bedroom, desperate to discover the truth about her father's death. Two years after the discovery of the pioneering scientist's suicide note, Karen Fleming still cannot accept that he would wilfully abandon her. And the more she discovers about the nature of his research, the more she suspects that someone was responsible for his disappearance.

The novel deals with the question of identity, and corporate greed. Research into the decline of bees may not be to the liking of certain corporations with much to lose. Does this have anything to do with our protagonist? 

It is well written and an absorbing read, I enjoyed it. I became very confused with two of the characters with the same name. My book group explained it, but I can’t remember what it was!

~Happy Reading ~

Polly x

Rufus' Diary

It's ages since one of us posted - 5 months to be exact. So what have we been up to? well, not very much really, our lives are quite simple, walks, sleep, food and play. 
Polly has been out on various day trips, she will probably tell you about them soon. 

Here we are a few weeks ago, the rape is almost ready for harvesting now.

Waiting for Buster to catch up with us

The wheat is greening up
which means it will soon be time for Polly to spray Buster against the horrible, nasty harvest mites. 

Grass has been cut for winter feed.

Sunbathing a week ago - we look like melted ice-creams or squashed!!

Dear Buster. Polly was going to put the re-cycling things away but left them here to answer the phone. When she returned this was Buster wanting to come into the house but the bin and bags spooked him so he just stood there until Polly moved them!  Bless him.

The village Churchyard has an area planted with poppies.

It's a lovely place for people to visit for quiet contemplation. Polly stopped by on D-Day .

~Keep well ~

Rufus
🐾

Tanzania

More photos sorted through and safely backed up.

In 2013 I ticked off another entry on my bucket list when I did a safari

       Flying into Mtemere                                             Arrivals and departures

Selous Riverside safari camp, Tanzania. My tent

complete with en-suite

and a cute lizard on my veranda

It was a very nice camp with good amenities.

This was my first safari and a tiny bit disappointing. The camp was outside the game reserve so by the time we had had breakfast and set off on the 10 min journey to the reserve, waited for about 10 minutes to enter the reserve most of the animals had already finished their morning ablutions and were difficult to find. 

Amazing dung beetles

Monitor Lizard

Only a mother could love this face!

 
Greater Kudu

Female Waterbuck

Warthog for dinner

Taken at a safe distance with a zoom lens!!

The impressive African Fish Eagle (top right) has structures on its toes called spiricules that allows it to grasp fish and other slippery prey. If it catches a fish over 1.8 kg (4 pounds) it will be too heavy to allow the eagle to get lift, so instead it will drag the fish across the surface of the water until it reaches the shore, or it will drop into the water and paddle to the shore with its wings.

Black Egrets cooling off

 

 

Yellow Billed Stork & mate.
The stork searches for food, taking what it wants, then his mate takes anything else

Although I said it was a tiny bit disappointing, looking at these photos, it was a good introduction.

My next one was in Zambia, inside a national park.

After this I spent a few days in Zanzibar. You can read about that here here and here.

~ Be well ~

Polly x