Here’s the book beginning that captured my interest:
Dr Iannis had enjoyed a satisfactory day in which none of his patients had died or got any worse. He had attended a surprisingly easy calving, lanced one abscess, extracted a molar, dosed one lady of easy virtue with Salvarsan, performed an unpleasant but spectacularly fruitful enema, and had produced a miracle by a feat of medical prestidigitation.
CAN YOU GUESS WHICH BOOK THIS IS? OR HAVE YOU READ IT ALREADY?
Watch out for the cover reveal and author’s name at the end of this Book Beginnings and Friday 56 Post. This book has also been made into a film, and the author is coming to Cambridge UK, to do a talk in June, more details below.
The Goodreads Synopsis:
It is 1941 and Captain Antonio Corelli, a young Italian officer, is posted to the Greek island of Cephallonia as part of the occupying forces. At first he is ostracised by the locals, but as a conscientious but far from fanatical soldier, whose main aim is to have a peaceful war, he proves in time to be civilised, humorous – and a consummate musician. When the local doctor’s daughter’s letters to her fiance go unanswered, the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable. But can this fragile love survive as a war of bestial savagery gets closer and the lines are drawn between invader and defender?
It is a weekly meme hosted by Freda at Freda’s Voice, click on the link to her blog, and the rules are pretty simple:
Grab a book, any book.
Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
(If you have to improvise, that’s OK.)
Find any sentence, (or few, just don’t spoil it).
Post it.
Add the url to your post on Freda’s Voice.
As soon as he entered the kapheneion he knew that something was amiss. Solemn martial music was emanating from the radio, and the boys were sitting in a grim and ominous silence, clutching their tumblers, their brows furrowed.
So of course the book is Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. If the book sounds enticing, and you live locally, here’s details of an author event at Stapleford Granary:
An Evening with Louis de Berniéres in conversation with BBC broadcaster Stephen Chittenden
This Friday I thought I’d take you with me on a walk in my neighbouring Country Park woods, they are so beautiful and I regret that I don’t often take a moment to stop and really marvel at the beauty that is right on my doorstep. When the children were little we were always at the swing park, indulging in the delights of sunny picnics. But now my youngest daughter wouldn’t be seen there with her mother! That would be so embarrassing for her. She is fifteen so it’s to be expected! If she still wanted to hang out with me, I’d be wondering what was wrong. So, undaunted I decided to go on my own on Tuesday. Yes, I did just that, and was so glad that I did. It was a beautiful sunny day. Everyone was out enjoying the sunshine, eating ice creams, children were playing in the park, office workers were sneaking out for a crafty short break, and who could blame them? It was a glorious Spring day. I hadn’t realised just how warm it was and I was overdressed, in fact there were a few young men stripped to the waist, sunbathing, enjoying the sunshine. Definitely brightened up my day! I was tempted to snap them too, with a camera of course, but wasn’t sure how they would react so I’m afraid I only photographed the trees, a monument, and some cheeky shadows!
Have a wonderful Friday, hope the sun is shining wherever you are. Enjoy your weekend.
Please feel free to connect, I love to talk about books, writing, haiku, photography, food, art, theatre, you name it, anything cultural and fun, I’m there.
This week I’ve been inspired by Esther Newton’s ten word story challenge to write a story with the words Potato and Friday, she originally posted this challenge on the 2nd of April.
So apologies for being so slow on the uptake Esther. I’m kind of behind on the date of the challenge but never mind. I had a go at this one anyway. Here is my belated ten word story:
Friday Hunger dug a cavernous potato hole in his stomach.
Esther’s looking for ten-word stories, with the words: discombobulated, fabulous, bacon and unicorn.
Sounds quite a challenge!
First of all let’s take the word discombobulated, quite a mouthful isn’t it? Doesn’t roll of the tongue with ease but I do kind of like the word, it means to confuse, disconcert, upset, frustrate. I kind of think the discombobulated idea suggests a touch of humour, and poor old Mr Pig may have to chat up a fabulous unicorn or else he might end up as bacon!
Here goes:
A discombobulated pig courted a fabulous unicorn who ate bacon.
Getting back to reflections why are they so beautiful? Does having the image reflected back at you make it more splendid? By tricking your senses you are fooled into believing there is more than one image. Sometimes the photo can seem quite surreal as in the above pink and blue sky scene in which the dark background looks like it is floating in the sky. Next to this there is the water lily which appears to be drowning in its own tiny reflection. In the image of the splendid Taj Mahal, you see the same effect, there is no discrimination, both grand, and everyday, simple treasures are treated the same way!
Easter eggs in India. Stutzfamily.com
Have a very Happy Good Friday, and a wonderful Easter break.
Just leaving you with one more reflection, an Easter egg of course!
And ending on a light hearted note. No more reflections. These are a bit of fun, enjoy!
Sorry for being so crackers, just couldn’t resist that one!
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This guys waving at you and that’s ok, he’s quite beautiful from afar but you sure don’t want to get up close and personal and you definitely don’t want to stand on him. He’s a sea urchin, also archaically known as a sea hedgehog.
You can see the resemblance. But this guy’s kind of cute.
This hedgehog really is a bit of a sneaky fellow, hiding away, a bit like his cousin the Sea Urchin.
Don’t mess with Sea Urchins, guys, I’m talking from experience, well second hand experience. My youngest daughter stood on a Sea Urchin whilst on holiday in Greece. The Sea Urchin may have great senses but it had no idea she was about to make this mistake, as they don’t have eyes. Shame, they can move with their adhesive tube feet but how was the urchin to know? It was a terrible experience. She ended up with thirty spines on her foot, and each one of these little darlings had to be removed individually by hand with the sharp point of a needle. No anaesthetic. My husband had some job holding her down. She looks slim and delicate but don’t let that fool you she’s wily and strong. She screamed the resort down. The resort doctor didn’t seem at all sympathetic, maybe this happens so often she’d just anaesthetised herself to any emotional response, too many unprepared tourists standing on sea urchins. But, my poor daughter was so disturbed by this unfortunate event that she developed a bit of a phobia for needles. Well, a massive phobia and this fear of needles continued for some time.
After all that, you’d think that she would have hated the holiday but no, she loved it. It was a wonderful opportunity for her to join in the watersports, hang out with new found friends, but it was one of those holidays when every possible accident that could happen did happen, and they all happened to her. In the space of two weeks she stood on a Sea Urchin, cut her foot on glass, banged her head on the pool, had an asthma attack whilst out swimming (in the middle of the ocean, as she tried to swim back to the boat we were on.) She managed to get a tick in the ear, and even got stung by a fairly innocuous jelly fish. Yes, it was such a memorable holiday, a veritable catalogue of accidents! Amazingly she still had fun, and kept on smiling, kids are so resilient aren’t they? But I have to say it wasn’t one of my favourite holidays.
So it’s no surprise that I have a bit of a love hate relationship with these creatures. I love them with their spines removed, but I hate them with their spines intact.
These spineless cute darlings.
Having said that there’s no doubt about it Sea Urchins are beautiful in their own way, even with their spines. But don’t forget to view them from a safe distance!
Maybe You Might Like To Plant a Sea Urchin Cactus?
Or Create Pretty Sea Bed Mats
Interspersed with colourful sea urchins
How about a Sea Urchin Snowman?
Sea Urchin snowman
Or a Sea Urchin Lamp?
And light up your way!
Bored? Grab some pencils and make a Sea Urchin.
Hungry? Some people even like to eat them, in the West Indies, slate pencil urchins, are eaten. Sea Urchins are commonly eaten by the Alaska Native population around Kodiak island. It is commonly exported, mostly to Japan. So I could get my own back by eating an unsuspecting Urchin but somehow that doesn’t appeal.
Here’s some pictures of other places in the world where you can eat Sea Urchins if the fancy takes you!
Barbeque anyone?
Camiguin Islands
I’ve no idea how you’d eat these?
Phu Quoc Vietnam
At least you get some slices of lemon and lime
and chilli sauce to wash these down with!
Coronado Island
Anyway don’t knock what you’ve never tried, apparently eating Sea Urchin is good for you, and their roes are considered to be an aphrodisiac in some parts of the world – Japan.
So remember the next time you dip your feet into the ocean if you expect that there might be Sea Urchins lurking in the seabed, waiting to stick their spines into your poor, unsuspecting feet, please buy a pair of these, they’re don’t cost much and they’re well worth the money!
So have a wonderful Friday, watch out what you do, and where you might step. See you again soon!
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I’ve been doing some background research for my second children’s novel which is set at the time of Chinese New Year, so I’m dedicating this post to The Kitchen God, also known as the Stove God, Zao Jun, Zao Shen, or Zhang Lang.
The Kitchen God watches over families and records their behaviour, good or otherwise, so beware!
Each year during Chinese New Year the Kitchen God reports back to the Jade Emperor of Heaven, Yu Huang, about how well the family members have conducted themselves throughout the year. A paper picture of the Kitchen God is hung in a prominent location in the kitchen. The family have a thank you dinner in which a bowl of sticky rice is placed in front of the Kitchen God. It is believed that if the Kitchen God’s mouth is full of sticky glutinous rice, he will not be able to speak out about the family’s wrongdoings. Others give glutinous rice balls served in sugar soup and brown sugar bars as a bribe for the Kitchen God to say favorable things about the family.
Sweet Glutinous Rice Cake
After the thank you dinner, the picture of the Kitchen God is burned and thereby sent back to heaven. A new picture of the Kitchen God is hung in the kitchen after the start of the Chinese New Year festivities.
The story of the Kitchen God is an interesting one, to begin with he’s just an ordinary mortal, Zhang Lang, a wayward fellow who has an affair with a younger more attractive woman. The heavens aren’t impressed by his behaviour so as a punishment he’s struck blind, and his young lover leaves him. In a nutshell his forgiving wife takes him back, as he seems guilty for his wrong-doings, and he is so remorseful for his adultery, that he throws himself onto the fire. All very dramatic! Well, that’s one of the stories anyway, there are several spins on it, but this one sounds the one I’d be inclined towards accepting.
The picture below is a statue of the Kitchen God and his wife in a temple in Chenghu, China.
He’s represented here in a clock. The hands of time, ticking away from one Chinese New Year to another, so watch out, be good! Don’t be greedy!
Here he is with some of the Chinese New Year signs. I’m a bit confused by the duck. I didn’t think a duck is one of the Chinese signs, (maybe he just waddled in,) though the rooster, pig and dog are. Anybody can clarify the duck’s role for me? Is he just visiting?
He’s looking very splendid here watching over some food.
I think the Kitchen God has found out that someone’s been badly behaved! Look at those eyes! No getting past them!
Before I disappear into the kitchen to do my impersonation of a domestic goddess let me share with you a book that I discovered today while typing up this blog post.
Guess what, the book has The Kitchen God in the title, and he’s joined by his significant other!
The Kitchen God’s Wife, by Amy Tan.
Goodreads Synopsis:
Winnie and Helen have kept each other’s worst secrets for more than fifty years. Now, because she believes she is dying, Helen wants to expose everything. And Winnie angrily determines that she must be the one to tell her daughter, Pearl, about the past—including the terible truth even Helen does not know. And so begins Winnie’s story of her life on a small island outside Shanghai in the 1920s, and other places in China during World War II, and traces the happy and desperate events tha led to Winnie’s coming to America in 1949.
Happy Friday. Be good! Eat lots of yummy food! Enjoy your weekend.
Oh, if you’ve read The Kitchen God’s Wife, I’d love to hear what you thought of it.
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I hope you’ll agree that they are quite amazing. Let’s start off with this beauty:
This one’s a bit dingy in comparison! Hope you have a warm jumper and a torch.
Maybe you prefer to be cushioned in a tree hand. What about something a bit more uplifting?
Or perhaps you’re a gambler who likes to take risks? The architect for the one below must have been drink! It reminds me of a pack of shuffled cards that’s out of order and tumbling everywhere!
Or would you like to blend into the environment? This one’s calm and tranquil. But how would you find your way home at night? Maybe you’ll need a sheep dog.
Perhaps you like to live dangerously?
This one would suit a hermit with a love of the tropics. Just imagine, you could swim every day. Heaven.
Quirky, yes, why not? I wonder if you have to climb up that hill with your groceries? Or would you give up and live off the land?
A fondness for mushrooms perhaps? Just don’t pick poisonous ones or magical ones!
Eggs? Yes, this reminds me of the material egg boxes are made of. I hope it’s not windy, or this egg box house may turn into a frisby. I hope you can climb trees.
One for a posh hermit with a love of the tropics who likes diving, and living precariously.
You enjoy the circus? Some stilts perhaps?
A lover of shoes?
Fond of gardening and like to keep chickens? This one’s a fancy chicken coop, but you could have a bigger version!
Like your garden but fancy an oriental touch?
An oriental tree house?
An artist with an obsession with plastic lunchboxes?
Or an artist with a door obsession?
A lover of books?
A bookworm wouldn’t just settle with the house, we’d need a few accessories too!
For skiiers, and adrenalin worshippers who also like a touch of summer sun?
Cat lovers, don’t look at me like that, I haven’t forgotten you.
And of course, last but not least, a special home for all those dog lovers out there, equipped with tail, and cute puppy.
Thanks for coming on this Friday’s Quirky house tour, hope you enjoyed yourself. Have a wonderful Friday, and a lovely weekend see you again soon!
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This little poetic ditty was inspired by this wonderful sculpture which I had the pleasure of seeing in all its splendour at Juniper Artland, Wilkieston, Scotland. You may remember that I mentioned this wonderful inspiring Artland before in several blog posts, the original being on the 15th of June 2014.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of all material in this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to this blog’s author with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Thank you.
This litte poetic ditty was inspired by this wonderful sculpture which I had the pleasure of seeing in all its splendour at Juniper Artland, Wilkieston, Scotland. You may remember that I mentioned this wonderful inspiring Artland before in several blog posts, the original being on the 15th of June 2014.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of all material in this blog post without express and written permission from this blog’s author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to this blog’s author with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Thank you.
A Very Happy Friday to you. Let’s talk about a new species. Of what you might ask. I’d reply, “You never know what you are looking at these days. Images trick you. Eyes deceive you.” You’d say, “Really, prove it!”
Yes, I intend to, I like a bit of a challenge. These are ………. drum roll please ………human flowers. No, they can’t be you say! They look so real. Those can’t be people. Well, here’s the thing, they are real. Astounding. Brilliant.
A delicate gust of wind and those blooms might just blow away!
A sky Diving BloomNo Thorns on This OneJust Going For A NapBlack Hair, Red Tights Rock!
Or maybe you might be interested in Feng Shui? This link is for Dragons in Feng Shui, but there are also all sorts of other interesting Feng Shui uses on this link, e.g. crystals and Feng Shui too. So, take a look: http://lifewithfengshui.com/tag/dragon-statue
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