Old books, new places on bookshelves

I have been meaning to do a monthly "book of the moment" slot picking up on whatever I was reading at the time that seemed relevant

And this month i find myself with two books that cannot be called at all "recent". There is "The Guide to South and East Africa for the use of tourists, sportsmen, invalids and settlers" - 1914 edition - and "Introduction to Zoology Through Nature Study" by Rosalie Lulham, 1923 edition.

The first book is a fascinating tour of a vanished world, usefully sporting pages advertising ginger beer, Broadwood Piano Fortes, Union-CAstle Line ships to south Africa and hotels (Beira, for example offer sthe Savoy at 15s - 20 s, Queen's from 8s 6d and the Metropole for 8s 6d (that's s= shillings (24 to the pound, I think? and d = pennies, 12 to the shilling)

There are wonderful, delicate colonial maps with the great sweep of Rhodesia reaching right up to the Nyasaland protectorate (now Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi) and German East Africa (mostly Tanzania)

Cape Town: I found Kloof Street and other familiar places

Introduction to Zoology is an old favourite, full of careful drawings and detailed life histories for beetles, worms and dragonflies. There is a recipe for "artificial sea water" and a design for "a subterrarium for beetles". I was given this copy when i was about 12 (have just had it rebound) and with that and assorted Gerald Durrell volumes on my bookcase, I never had much of a chance really. Explains the current 9 aquaria (emergency tanks for stray tadpoles and toadlets and a refugee newt), the pile of bone sin the library and the boxes of useful pine cones and pebbles upstairs...

The same adventure that brought me the Guide, added a book on the Tortoises of Southern Africa and reprints of books Old Stone Monuments by J Ferguson (originally published 1872) and The Shire Highlands by Jim Buchanan (Malawi, 1885) and the brand new and magnificent The Wildflowers of Offaly by John Feehan, but they can all wait for another day!

Still enjoying South African memories

Workshops in Grahamstown and then in Durban Botanical Gardens and down in Cape Town (for VANSA: Visual arts network of South Africa) have been exciting and challenging. I always arrive wondering  what I can offer people living in such a different country so far from all my landscape points of reference but then we get started, relax and I am reminded that everywhere people appreciate the chance to let their imaginations run around, to play with ideas around stories and that little handmade, home-made books are an enchantment and a delight. And working here, it was good to be told by children from township schools that "We could make a book like this at home. Look you've used one-sided paper(*) and I could make a cover from a cereal packet"

Durban BG is a beauty! Neat and precise in its city-centre setting but holding some stunning trees - huge, buttress- and aerial- rooted figs. It is free and is used by everyone, it seems: lovely to see people having picnics, pausing in their busy days, chatting to friends. And where I'd see people feeding the ducks here in UK, to watch a mother and her little girl feeding the spoonbills and sacred ibis was just wonderful

In Cape Town, I was taken to the new Biodiversity Garden, growing in the shadow on the world cup stadium there. Another place of wonder and enchantment (the Garden, I can't speak for the Stadium). A fascinating instant tour of the wonders of the Cape where there is more floral variety in a few hundred square miles than I'd meet walking right along the length of UK. Well presented and again well-used. Eavesdropping on visitors had me hungering for a notebook project, inviting people to record their memories of flowers and the uses of plants. Sessions here organised by my friend Wendy who runs her own environmental education company, Ecoactivities

* that confused me too: paper that has been printed on one side

Re-imagining: possible futures in South Africa

Re-imagining new futures in South Africa....just back from 2 weeks in beautiful RSA, doing workshops, making new friends, connecting with old friends and having a wonderful time! Based at the new Environmental Learning Research Centre ( ELRC) in Grahamstown as part of their "Re-imagining" strand within the National Arts Festival, and adventuring on from there

Over the next few days, I'll post notes and comments arising from time there (always rewarding and inspiring) but will start today with some images