Young love... Ain't it grand?
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Turning over an old leaf. Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart. April 2012. > The Cinnamon Peeler , Michael Ondaatje If I were a cinnamon peeler I would ride your bed And leave the yellow bark dust On your pillow. Your breasts and shoulders would reek You could never walk through markets without the profession of my fingers floating over you. The blind would stumble certain of whom they approached though you might bathe under rain gutters, monsoon. Here on the upper thigh at this smooth pasture neighbour to you hair or the crease that cuts your back. This ankle. You will be known among strangers as the cinnamon peeler's wife. I could hardly glance at you before marriage never touch you --your keen nosed mother, your rough brothers. I buried my hands in saffron, disguised them over smoking tar, helped the honey gatherers... When we swam once I touched you in the water and our bodies remained free, you could hold me and be blind of smell. you climb...
Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.
"No, not that one. The other one. The expensive one!"
Television is very educating. Every time somebody turns it on, I go into the other room and read a book.
The succulent's edge. Quayle Street, Sandy Bay. January 2012. This Blinding Absence of Light by the Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun is a very dark book, in more ways than one. Its narrative is essentially a reconstruction based on the testimonies of the former inmatse at Tazmamart, a Moroccan secret prison for political prisoners that operated with the harshest of conditions. A hole in the middle of the desert, Tazmamart was a place where prisoners were give us subsistence level of food and water to keep them a live, but deprived them of every aspect of life, including that of light. Thus, we the reader are primarily left with the voice of a solitary prisoner, a voice all the more powerful for being draped in darkness. As one might expect, there is a starkness to the crystalline, pared-down prose. The author certainly rises to the challenge of maintaining interest in such a limited environment and utter hopelessness facing those characters held here. Thus we are treated t...
Rosella in stand-off. Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart. April 2012. Theme Thursday and I have been driven just a little bit WILD by the new interface that Blogger has enforced on us all. I know that I shouldn't complain about what is ultimately a free service, and with this being post number three-thousand, three-hundred and seventy-five, I'm hardly going to quit now. That said, I am intrigued as to how others feel about it. Some come on Theme Thursday-ers, what do you reckon? Are you WILD about it? Or does it just drive you WILD?
I could go some of these Indian Root Pills right now! Argyle Street, Hobart. December 2011. Before I get into the Q and A today, I just had to look up the tale of this old ad [above]. It turns out that Dr. Morse's Indian Root Pills were one of the great success stories of the good old patent medicine industry. The (possibly shady) ‘Dr.’ Morse asserted that the pills contained a secret blend of herbal ingredients that would help "cleanse the blood." Indeed, ‘dirty blood’ appeared to be the cause of all diseases to ‘Dr.’ Morse. I will confess to being slightly disappointed to not being able to access the miracle drug these days. They sound just the ticket! Alas, onwards to another Tuesday Q and A courtesy of Sunday Stealing. It’s a challenge this week – The TV Show Meme – especially difficult because I’ve watched a sum total of about eight television shows in the past six years… But first, a note from the Q and A designer! Before reading the questions, nominate ...
Racing boats. The Derwent Estuary, as viewed from Alexandra Battery, Sandy Bay. April 2012. The Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (as well as a lot of pop up ads.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning.. Here are some very dangerous things to avoid doing, spectacularly captured in super slow motion highlights … This is cool: the World of 100 . Some nice graphic representation of the composition of the world if we were just a village of 100 people… A hundred years ago, the British Empire looked enviously at the efficient carrier pigeon networks established by its European rivals. Yet – after constant training and investment – Allied birds outperformed their rivals during the First World War. Here is the story of how the closed the pigeon gap ! We should strike some medals for these two sisters in the UK who have forced...
A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying... that he is wiser today than yesterday.
Fair dinkum, this new Blogger interface is going to be a test...
A great all-rounder. Hastings Caves State Reserve, Southern Tasmania. April 2012. Sunday Top Five already? Cripes! Okay, how about My Top Five Former Sovereign States That I'd Like To See Back! The Holy Roman Empire The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics The Great Republic of Rough and Ready The Federal Republic of Central America The Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia