The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay

If someone had asked me if I would enjoy a book about boxing and about South Africa I probably would say, "I don't really think so."
So you never really can tell about a book until you try it.

I had picked up this book, the Power of One a year or so ago thinking the title sounded interesting. I didn't notice that on the cover it said "classic novel of South Africa. A couple of weeks ago I picked up the book again and started to read it. What a surprise! Once I had started to read it I was completely engrossed by the story and the easy way it could be read.

This book was published in 1989 and tells the story of South Africa in the periods between 1930 and 1945. It is really a time and a place I knew nothing about. This book changed that. It tells the story of an English boy called Peekay. He is very young at the beginning of the book and is being cared for by a Zulu wet nurse who becomes his nanny. The book develops showing how he goes through life until he is a young man. He manages to cope with boarding school and all the horrors that surround him by developing "the power of one" taught to him by a black magic man.

On the way back from boarding school to his home Barberton, he meets a black boxer, who is such a friendly person and so inspiring to the young boy that he makes a decision that small as he is, he will one day become the welterweight champion of the world in boxing.

And so the story continues. Very entertaining but also most informative.
I am very pleased I read this book

Rhubarb Crumble

Rhubarb Crumble

Can't see much of the crumble as we had a LOT of custard!

We can't grow rhubarb in Texas very easily. I tried once it was not a success. I guess it just isn't hot enough, no that's not what I meant, I meant it just isn't wet enough. It  really is too hot. I know it grows in Canada. In fact, the climate there seems just right as it was in England. Rhubarb there grows like a weed!

So when I see rhubarb in the stores in Texas, which doesn't happen very often, I always buy some as it is a favorite of ours. I guess it is because we grew up eating rhubarb. Often that is the case. Foods that you eat as a child often later in life, become your favorites especially if you can't get them where you live.

Doesn't look so pretty once you serve it out!!

So it is on this weekend I plan to make rhubarb crumble. This is one of our favorite dishes even more so than rhubarb pie. I have found a English recipe and will follow that.

Mike will make custard as he makes that well. When I make it it either goes like cement or it is so watery that it can't be called custard.

Don't you wish you were coming to lunch with us today?

Just in case I have  wetted your appetite for this delicious dish, I have added the link to the recipe below.

Enjoy!

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/420616/rhubarb-crumble

I did find some of the measurements a big challenge to convert . I need an app for that !!

Catching Up- Books

Catching Up on the Books I have read.

I realized while  I was in the library looking for some new books to read today that I hadn't kept up writing about the books I have been reading over the last couple of months. I try to do this mostly for my own benefit to remind myself of the ones I have enjoyed or found interesting. If I don't do that I occasionally will select a book that I have read before. It's a sign of old age I guess.
Here are 3 books I enjoyed ; one a mystery, one an "end of the world" story and the third , a historical novel.

Mercy Snow by Tiffany Baker is the mystery that is set in the mountains of New Hampshire in a failing paper Mill town. It is a  small close-knit community where everyone knows everyone else and control is still kept by the MIll owner and his wife . In this  town one family "The Snows", a vagrant  poor family of a brother and 2 sisters almost like gypsies are not welcome  even though their parents has owned property at the edge of town and they are living there in a ramshackle RV. A bad accident involving children on a bus happens and Mercy Snow's brother is blamed for the accident but she sets about to prove he did not do it. It kept my interest and is a well written book.

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller is an "end of the world" type story. ( seems like there are lots of those around these days). The main character in the book is Hig a young man living with his old dog, Jasper on an airport in the prairie close to the Colorado mountains. Most people have died due to a virus epidemic and those left are barbaric and will try to take anything they want or steal it or kill to get it. Hig and his crusty, unsociable neighbor Bangley , an expert on all kinds of guns and defense have carved out a home for themselves but spend most of the time defending it. Hig with Jasper have one relief, they fly out in his old 58 Cessna and all the time Hig is looking for something better. This is especially true when old Jasper dies and Hig goes off to see if he can find better company and a life than he presently has.
It is written in a very strange style. Short clipped sentences and most peculiar punctuation but once you get into the flow of reading it keeps you interested right up to the very end.The part where old Jasper dies is especially touching.

The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein is a historical novel set in America and Japan in time before, during and shortly after World War II.
It tells the story of a group of people from both countries and the way the war influenced and basically destroyed their lives. It is sometimes hard to read as the details of the war, especially the firebombing of Tokyo are well described . It made me realize just how little I know about those times but also gives you the realization that basically all people want the same out of life-love and happiness wherever they live. A gripping story.

Larkspur blooms

If you remember my plogs from last year you will remember how I loved my larkspur flowers. I collected a great many of the seeds and kept them safely indoors over the winter. In early Spring, really it was winter time about mid January, I went out like Mother Nature sprinkling all the seeds plus a packet of larkspur seeds I had bought from Wild seed farms when we visited there in the Fall.
 
I tried to put them towards the back of my flower patches as I know now from experience they grow really tall. It seems they don't grow where you put them.
 By February I had feathery little green shoots springing  up and when I looked it wasn't exactly when I had thrown them either. It almost looked like grass the green shoots were so thick.

Then the late frosts came and I thought there go the larkspurs, they will get frozen in place but maybe a few will survive. I couldn't have been more wrong. They all continued to grow and grow even it seems, with out much water. Then we had a couple of heavy rains and they put extra effort into growing.

Now we have dense areas of beautiful purples and blue with the odd white and pink thrown in and they are all just beautiful.

It's a good job I really like them as I think they have crowded most everything else out in the beds.
I suspect the problem with the overcrowding was my fault as probably last years flowers had already partially seeded before I started collecting seeds and then I helped even more by adding to the area.

Who cares? Not I.
 
I love larkspur.

A Day to be Thankful for....

A Day to be Thankful for....

Rose garden at the Botanical Gardens

On Tuesday this week, MIke and I headed down Highway 35 to Fort Worth to get a final ( we hoped) check up with Dr. D after my parotid gland removal surgery.

The sun was shining, we were in our posh new Honda Odyssey van, the traffic for a change was moving along as a good clip . We have been stuck on this road many a time because of the major road construction taking place but today there were no hold ups at all. We were in luck we got to the doctor's office  in record time, even about 20 minutes early, found a place to park in the crowded parking lot( amazing) so things were looking good.

Amazingly our luck continued. We had only been sitting for about 5 minutes in the waiting room when we were called in to see the doctor. This hardly ever happens with this doctor as he is very busy all the time.

He quickly pulled out the dreaded drain and tube from my neck which was giving me such a lot of discomfort and told us the good news. "
Everything looks fine . No sign of cancer or of infection. It is healing well as it should. No other problems noted. You are free to go on with life." He didn't actually say that but that's what it implied to me. I felt like a free person. I will have to go back in November for a check up but no problem with that.

So off we went and we had a whole beautiful day free to use.  As it was a great Spring day we decided to go to one of our favorite places in Fort Worth, the lovely, calm and peaceful Botanical Gardens. This is just a lovely place to visit at anytime of the year but in Spring time , one of the best, with many of the flowers just coming into bloom. We spent some time in the rose gardens and then walked through the wooded trails. Lunch time was here so we  decided to go to our other favorite place the Garden Restaurant. a delightful quiet full service place to eat a lovely lunch and enjoy a glass of wine. The food was excellent as it usually is and it was nice to be able to have a glass of wine again with my meal.

As we were driving home I thought to myself what a very fortunate person I was to have had such a lovely day, a day to especially be very thankful for....

A lovely surprise

A lovely surprise.

Photo by Mike

My friend Ros , with the help of MIke, surprised me this morning with bringing me a lovely " get well and we are thinking of you" present. She appeared at the door carrying a beautiful bougainvillea hanging plant for me. She had brought it to me from my friends at the British Connection, a group of ladies that meet in a purely social way to drink tea and eat neat stuff every month and to discuss all things British and otherwise.....
That was such a nice thing to do and this plant is one of my favorites.

Photo by Mike

We see this plant growing in more profusion when we go to the more tropical places in the USA , like California or Florida but it should do well  here in Texas at least until the colder weather comes in the fall. Then it will come inside.
I really appreciate their kind thoughts and also the lovely surprise.
Thank you ladies.

The Clay Pot

The Clay Pot.

Pot no 1

Fortunately I managed to get the challenge paintings for this month done before my latest operation although painting is one of the things I really could do while getting better.
The challenge this month was  a very basic still life of a clay pot close to a carved table leg with shadows  behind the objects. The details were mostly  in the table leg and floor .
I switched  from water color paint to acrylic paint for this challenge  as I felt to get the feeling of heavy clay and dark wood  would be a challenge  in water color plus I like using acrylic paint. I guess it's because I am more used to using it.

I started out with the single pot because I felt I needed to work on the color and getting that heavy feel to it without having to bother with other aspects of the composition.

Painting no2

I liked the result so set about doing a slightly smaller version to include the carved table leg and the table.
This was fiddly to get the shadows just right as was the cross shadows at the back.
Mike thinks those look like tram lines.
I think I agree with him !!

Original photo for challenge