It appears self’s books have been available on kindle for a few years. She never knew!
Two of the four:
The cover of The Lost Language is a detail of a painting by the late, great Filipino artist Santiago Bose.
Tag: discoveries
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What is this flower? It is GORGEOUS! Thought it might be a clematis, but have you ever seen an orange clematis???
Found in the garden of The Pinschower Inn in Cloverdale, California.
Posting for Cee Neuner’s Flower of the Day.
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The Pacific was a side discovery: what all Spanish explorers were after were “rivers of gold.” In 1 September 1513, an Andalucian explorer named Vasco Nuñez de Balboa set off for Careta in Panama, with a crew of “fewer than 200 men.”
At Careta, “the expedition disembarked and scaled rugged mountain ranges and crossed large rivers, passing through thick, exhausting jungles of a density they had never imagined possible, subduing indigenous people as they went with gunshot and packs of hungry dogs. Finally, in late September 1513, they reached the summit of a bare hill. There, surrounded by his companions — who included a sturdy man from the Extremaduran town of Trujillo called Francisco Pizarro — Nuñez de Balboa was dumbfounded by a sight that was as awesome as it was unexpected. Kneeling down, he raised his hands, gave thanks to God, and ‘prouder than Hannibal showing Italy and the Alps to his soldiers . . . he promised great riches to his men, saying: ‘Behold, all you men who have endured so much, behold the lands of which . . . the natives have told us such wonders.’ In front of them lay the Pacific Ocean.
— Conquistadores: A New History of Spanish Discovery and Conquest, by Fernando Cervantes, pp. 87 – 88
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Self has a book in her hotel room. She’s been reading from it in drips and drabs. Here’s an excerpt from the section A Brief History of Dublin:
It probably began as a Christian monastic settlement sometime in the 6th century, but by the 9th century it was home to a Viking raider town, which the Vikings themselves called Diflyn. For centuries, a struggle between the Irish and the Viking invaders raged on, until the legendary Irish High King Brian Boru and his army finally defeated them in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014.
The next major upheaval for Dublin was the Norman Invasion of Ireland during the late 12th century. By 1171, the Anglo-Normans had taken over the city and it became the capital of the English Lordship of Ireland. Settlers came in great numbers from England and Wales. England’s power was centered around Dublin Castle, and over the next few centuries, Dublin began to develop as an important city, with two cathedrals, several monasteries and by 1592, the beginning of Trinity College.
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Excerpt from Alcohol
— translated by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps
On the terrace the left-over cups of tea
are filling up with rain water
and cigarette butts,
you and I share a cold
you and I share long conversations —
you don’t notice the morning rain
you go to sleep late
and you wake up late
I write poems about how I love
this woman, and I invent
newer and newer words
to avoid
telling her.Serhiy Zhadan is the most popular poet of the post-independence generation in Ukraine. His work speaks to the disillusionment, difficulties, and ironies brought by the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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Fell back a little bit on Walking Squares, but am back now. Thank you to Becky at Life of B for hosting this challenge. November has been a lot of fun, looking through archives and at other people’s Walking Squares.
Self was fortunate enough to spend time the entire month of April writing in Northern Ireland, at River Mill, near Downpatrick. One of her fellow writers, Anna, a mystery writer from Dublin, asked if self wanted to go with her to a beach nearby. Self agreed, and that is how these pictures came to be.
We arrived at Rossglass Beach at the perfect time, just before sunset. The only other people on the beach were a group of teen-agers who decided to strip down and jump into the water. The mysterious mountains in the distance are the Mountains of Mourne. There is only one word for that setting: MAGICAL.
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Again, much thanks to Life of B for this month’s Squares Challenge: Walking Squares! So much fun to create a gallery of memorable walks!
In April, self finally crossed Belfast off her bucket list. She’d been wanting to go ever since she got into Game of Thrones, the HBO series. She was a huge Gendrya fan, and every time Joe Dempsie showed up in Belfast she would cheer!
She stayed at the Europa Hotel, which was fantastic, and each day she explored a different area of Belfast. One day, she went to Queen’s University and explored the botanic garden, right alongside:
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This is self’s fifth post for The Life of B’s Walking Squares Challenge.
Missed Squares so much! The November theme is WALKING SQUARES.
In May, self spent two weeks in an East London Airbnb. It had a wonderful location: just across the street from Haggerston Park. She had never been to this part of London before, so she spent much time exploring. The park was glorious, semi-wild in places, with a working farm at one end, the end near Hackney Road.
Here are a few pictures:
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To explain this challenge, P.A. Moed quotes Shivanand Sharma:
Working a shot is the photographers’ way of refining the shot; to make an extraordinary imagery from the ordinary scene. It is just like a writer wandering about for the plot of story or a painter re-working his canvas for a finished outcome.
Shivanand SharmaSelf had quite a hard time settling on a subject. So many possibilities! Which shows how many pictures she actually takes: for her, framing is all.
But, finally, she settled on her newest rose, Moonlight Romantica, bought just this past spring. It has entertained her with its beauty for months — all summer, in fact. It is not blooming right now, so these are pictures she took in July. (In addition, it has grown to a great height: it’s almost 5 feet right now)
The colors change gradually: from the bright orange of a new bud, to a pale yellow when first unfurled, to almost white when past its prime.
Moonlight Romantica rose, July 
Kanlaon 