Wishes

I'm away for a few days so see you all on the other side in a new decade. Wishing friends followers and fellow bloggers a fabulous new year.

Favourite 2009 Reads

The last days of December mean looking back at my reading year. What have been the standout books for me.

Number One picks itself. The Outlander by Gil Adamson was one of Canada Reads choices but it does not seem to have made a big impact here, yet, but the paperback is not released until January.

The story grips from the start as you travel with The Widow being chased by revenging brothers across the Rocky Mountains in 1903. This first novel by Gil Adamson, it is full of adventure, history, characters and vivid descriptions. Happening on some photographs of this part of Alberta after reading this book it was as though I had seen it already. The book was nearly not published as it was pushed away in a drawer for some time (article and profile here). Go read it you won't be disappointed. I blogged it here
Number Two is Haruki Murakami's 'Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World', another adventure but one of the mind. Set in both an alternative Tokyo and a place called The End of the World. It is both a 'noir' mystery, fantasy and philosophical riff on the nature of self. I blogged it here Everybody raves about Murakami and this was my first experience of his work so I have lots more to discover.

Both these books were early year reads so I'm hoping that next year will be as lucky. Now for my two non fiction reads which were read at the end of this year which is a neat coincidence.
Number One.
I bought 'Miracles of Life' by JG Ballard when trying to add another book to complete the trio necessary to bag a book bargain in The Works. Like I have not enough books waiting for me on my To Read shelf/s. This is a fascinating short memoir of growing up in China and internment by the Japanese in Shanghai during the war, an experience he used as a basis for his novel 'Empire of the Sun' . He arrives back in a grey post war England and then writes about his life from then on and his reason for writing. The book illuminates the reading of Ballard's novels and makes me want to return to some of his work. I think I remember reading he knew he was dying when writing this autobiography and here he seems to be leaving us some of his memories.

Number Two is an old book but one I read after seeing a few of I've Been Reading Lately's musings. 'The Proud Tower. A portrait of the world before the war 1896-1914' by Barabara Tuchman is great and entertaining exploration of the shifts in power and society that led to the First World War, explored through various themed chapters. This is a page turning book about an age that was looked back on, after the carnage of WW1, as a golden era, this shows us with humour and learning how wrong this view was.

The only quibble I have is about the anarchists chapter which only concerns itself with the tabloid view of bomb throwers, but would guess this was an editorial decision to make a point about the violence and paranoia of the era. For a more rounded view of the anarchists George Woodcock's 'Anarchism' is a better starting point.

Series I've Only Read One of So Must Read the Rest

Fred Vargas's Adamsberg series. I read 'Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand' , set in both France and Canada, and thought this was a fresh take on the detective genre. I blogged it here and have another on my shelves waiting to go.

Like it seems the rest of the world I've read the first of Steig Larsson's Millennium trilogy 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' and have been bought the second one so I've cracked that open today.

Happy reading.

ABC Wednesday - X

Saltmarsh, Duddon Estuary

X marks the Spot

A favourite device of pirates to mark where buried treasure lies

such as the map from Treasure Island which also has arrows



for how else would you know the direction to set sail. Although this arrow gives direction to
the top and a trig point, which are as useful as directional x marks the spot and to hill walkers, especially in bad weather, as they eXplore the countryside. These were erected by the Ordnance Survey in Britain as they mapped the country. The metal plate on the top is for securing a theodolite or reflector to make eXact triangulations. With the rise of GPS systems they are not all in use anymore and I suspect this one is not, so is an eX trig, but it has been adopted, for it was newly painted this year in time for Remembrance Sunday.
It is surrounded by a wind shelter, very welcome in eXtreme weather on this eXposed spot. If you look north from this point

in the far distance, at the eXtreme end of my camera's zoom, there are not X rays, but radiation of a different type, the eX nuclear power station, which is now being demolished, but still in use as a nuclear processing plant. Constructed in the 1950s when safety in science used to be more gung ho it used to be called Windscale but after a few leakages the name was eXcised, it had a PR makeover and renamed Sellafield.
Could X also mark the vanishing point as the eXpress train races down the line
or stand for danger at railway crossing. Sherlock Hemlock certainly says so in this short clip from Sesame Street.


eXit here to see more interpretations of the letter X on the ABC Wednesday meme.

Frosty Flowers and Chimes

Skimmia Japonica on a frosty morning

"Chimes" by Alice Meynell

Brief, on a flying night
From the shaken tower,
A flock of bells take flight
And go with the hour.

Like birds from the cote to the gales,
Abrupt - O hark!
A fleet of bells set sails,
And go to the dark.

Sudden the cold airs swing,
Alone, aloud,
A verse of bells takes wing
And flies with the cloud.

ABC Wednesday - Wind

It may be invisible but the direction can be seen as after years of a westerly wind the tree bends to its will. Used as a way point on a moorland walk I wonder how many years it has been here. If you click on the photo to enlarge you will see right through the bottom of the tree to the other side.

The Ancient Greeks stories tell us that Aeolus was the ruler of the winds and he kept them confined to a cave on Mount Haemus, Thrace.

He must have let one of them out to whistle through the Black Mountains in Wales. On a very warm and sunny day with a hat to protect against the rays, I sat down to have a drink and RB got his camera out. As he went to click
Whoosh away went the hat. You can see I am a coiled spring about to chase it down as it moves to the edge of the photo. An almost action shot.
A scenic windmill on Mont Dol seen through straight fir trees, they deal with the wind in a different way. Although this day was almost windless with just a gentle zephyr.
From the other side the still windmill and restaurant with umbrellas to shelter against the sun. The wind likes to play with umbrellas.
The wind turbines are not as attractive but the chequered pattern is rather appealing. This was taken on Kirkby Moor, the same place as the tree in the first photograph. It is a schizophrenic place, part of it is a wild and fragile moorland, then a fraction of it is a wind farm and then further on there is a slate quarry with spoil heaps. It could probably act a microcosm of how the human race treat the planet.

But lets move and go up up and away as the
wind takes the balloons. The Raiderettes having problems releasing and separating the balloons, which took on a life of their own, and winged their way into the atmosphere, never being separated from each other. Weeeeee

I leave you with one of Tolkien's riddles. Natural phenonomen are always a favourite in these puzzles. There are sometimes consequences in legends of not being able to answer a riddle. Riddle me ree

Voiceless it cries
Wingless flutters
Toothless bites
Mouthless mutters


We are nearing the end of the alphabet in the ABC Wednesday meme. To see what words the other participants have used whizz over here

Let it Snow

Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we've no place to go
Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Well not until tomorrow at least. Looking at the sky could be more to come.

ABC Wednesday - V

Oh look here is a sideways view of a V. Or perhaps it is a water skiing jump ramp, although best to veer away from it in this position by the banking, it is laid up for the season. In the summer it may be used by vacationing visitors when it will be at the other end of Hodbarrow Lagoon. At this time of year most of the visitors are wintering waterfowl and of course the locals stay year round

and are beautiful. It won't be long before this juvenile gets its white feathers When it was little mother would be very vexed if you came too near, now she lets them do their own thing. When tired of the lagoon walk over to
Hodbarrow Point, sit on the seat, perhaps have some victuals and enjoy the view across the Duddon Estuary.

Living on the coast and close to the Lake District means that water sports and messing about in boats are very popular pastimes. But sometimes you have to transport your equipment and may need some sort of vehicle
perhaps a van. What a fun paint job, notice the blue bars welded on the top. This was parked by a popular bay on the lake frequented by canoeists. It has a landing stage for larger boats although I have rarely seen one docked there and in the summer the main use is for children to run along it and jump off the end into the water. Bit too chilly at this time of year.
But now lets vacation or vacances in France. What a vivid blue sky and sign. You may be thinking to yourself. That's a bit of a boring picture. Well it serves two purposes, one by happy coincidence the bus stop is called Le Verger and two, I tend to take pictures of signs because being a procrastinator they act as a memory aid when I am vacillating and verify my volatile recall when I eventually label them.
Lastly, a photo taken because V is a tricky letter. I wonder who lives in a house like this?

Vault over to ABC Wednesday to view more interpretations of the letter V.