START with Sea of Poppies, by Amitav Ghosh
I recently wrote a book review on River of Smoke, by Amitav Ghosh, which held me spellbound, so riveting that I had to order Sea of Poppies, which is actually the first volume of the trilogy. I had heard a review of River of Smoke on NPR and although it was written as the second volume in a trilogy, it can be read as a stand-alond.
Yes. Yes, it can be read as a stand-alone, but it is so much easier, I can state with authority, if you read them in order. Once I started Sea of Poppies, I also discovered an extensive glossary in the back, several pages, a list of the words, annotated with suggested origins, and it adds so much color to an already brilliantly colored novel. Much of both novels uses words from many cultures, and words that have been formed by another culture’s understanding of the words (some hilarious). If you like Captain Jack Sparrow, you’re going to love the polyglot language spoken by ship’s crews from many nations trying to communicate with one another. It can be intimidating, but if you sort of say the words out loud the way they are written at the beginning, you begin to find the rhythm and the gist of the communication, just as if you were a new recruit to the sea-going vessels of the early 1800’s. I loved it because it captured the difficulties encountered trying to say the simplest things, and the clever ways people in all cultures manage to get around it, and make themselves understood.
Sea of Poppies starts in a small Indian village, with one of the very small poppy gardens, planted on an advance from an opium factory representative, thrust upon the small farmer, with the result that most small Indian farmers converted their entire allotment from subsistence foods to poppies. Ghosh walks us through an opium processing factory, which is a little like walking through the circles of hell. We meet many of the characters we will follow in River of Smoke, and learn how this diverse group bonded into one sort of super-family through their adventures – and misadventures – together.
It is an entirely engrossing work. Sea of Poppies was short listed for the Man Booker award, and was listed as a “Best Book of the Year” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post and The Economist. The theme is the opium trade, leading to the Opium Wars, with China, and is a chilling indictment of how business interests manipulate a population’s perceptions of national interests to justify . . . well, just about anything, in the name of profit.
The theme is woven through human stories so interesting, so textured, so compelling, that you hardly realize you are reading history and learning about the trade, cultures, travel, clothing, traditions, religions, food, and motivations as you avidly turn the pages.
I can hardly wait for the third volume. Get started now, so you’ll be ready for it when it comes out!
January Garden in Pensacola
AdventureMan, half way to his goal of becoming a Master Gardener, spent the last week cleaning out the pots and gardens in back, but couldn’t bear to get rid of these two valiant tomato plants which continue bearing well into January. We’ve had delicious tomatoes since August! Who know we would live in a place where you plant tomato seeds in June and continue to have fresh tomatoes growing into January?
We also have a wonderful aloe plant, which got a little confused in the warmth of a couple days of December and sent up a flower. The first year we were here, the flowers came up in April, but Spring seems to be coming earlier and earlier . . .
We’re having a little tree work done, and AdventureMan is studying pruning techniques, so as to judiciously and minimally trim back some of our fruit trees, and clear some of the dead branches off our huge oak tree. I’ve got two avocado trees that I’ve grown from seeds, in large pots now, and some basil plants that still appear to be doing well. I still remember the hedges made of basil, which grew year round in Qatar at the Ramada Hotel, and in Kuwait would go dormant during the brutal heat of summer but come roaring back once the heat moderated.
The Monarch Caterpiller Ornament
Only a friend can know you so well as to send you a gift like this. When I arrived home from Seattle, this was waiting, and we had to unwrap it right away. When I saw it, I laughed, and ran to show AdventureMan, and we nearly danced for joy, it is so perfect for our tree.
AdventureMan loves butterflies, is creating gardens to attract butterflies, and my sweet Doha friend was looking for a Monarch butterfly ornament, but instead, she found the caterpillar.
How perfect for Advent! We love the season of expectation, waiting for the birth of this dear little babe who will make all the difference. The caterpillar is the form of the Monarch before it goes into the caccoon and transforms into the Monarch. Perfect for the season of waiting expectantly 🙂
Summer in Seattle Comes to Pensacola
(LOL, not quite there yet)
Today is a gorgeous Seattle summer day, lows last night in the low 40’s, and high today MIGHT hit 60. It’s a great day for being outside, trimming back the rose bushes, taking cuttings for some new starts. It’s a great day for mulching, weeding, all those things I dread when the weather is hot and humid.
Only tiny drawback is the mosquitos; we have both nile fever and dengue to worry about with those pesky mosquitos, as well as other mosquito borne illnesses. I actually have a beautiful mosquito netting we bought in Bruges for when we lived in Germany, with our windows open all summer, but we have our windows open so seldom it is hardly worth it to put it up, and I think it annoys Adventureman having to get in and out of bed with the net, LOL!
We still have tomatoes and peppers and eggplants ripening, our pomegranates are ready, and our lemons are beginning to ripen – it is a great day to be alive.
A Butterfly is Born
You can always tell when they are fresh out of the chrysalis; they are slower, they sit longer in one place, fanning their wings as they stretch and dry. They flit just a little, looking for something good to eat.
If you want to have butterflies, you want to have milkweed, to nourish the caterpillars, and then guara, hot lips, golden drop, pentas, etc to nourish the newly emerged butterfly.
I only know all this because AdventureMan is growing all these wonderful plants which attract Monarchs, Sulphers, Buckeyes, Gulf Fritillaries, hummingbirds, bees and more birds. 🙂
UPDATE: LOL, AdventureMan came to me and told me I had to change things to make them accurate, especially if I was citing him.
AdventureMan’s Garden
It’s all about rebirth, transformation, and new life. Gardening is a discipline, and a spiritual endeavor. You can plant the seeds, you can tend the process, but only God can make those seeds grow and flourish.
AdventureMan is so happy. He loves his garden. No, he doesn’t love weeding (does anyone?) but he loves the feeling of satisfaction when he looks at a formerly weedy bed and sees that it looks great now. His moonflowers are starting to bloom, his tomatoes are starting to ripen, we are using 8 different kinds of fresh basil, he has bounteous peppers, enough to share generously – life is good.
Tomatoes and more tomatoes!
An abundance of jalepenos!
Pear tomatoes coming along:
This is one of his butterfly gardens. We have all kinds of butterflies coming through, laying eggs, and hatching into butterflies – Monarchs, Gulf Fritillaries, Sulpher, Brown Beauties, many that he can name that I can’t!
He has been accepted into the Master Gardener’s program and is about to dazzle me with all his gardening expertize! 🙂
Tomatoes and Peppers!
Suddenly, a cold front is pushing into Florida, and in Pensacola the day dawned . . . well, not crisp, but almost fresh! Tonight it is supposed to get below 70°F, which is significant because when night temperatures go below 70°F, tomato blossoms set fruit.
We were in Zambia when we might normally have started our tomatoes, so AdventureMan started them in later June, from seed. He has a glorious crop of different kinds of tomatoes growing, and it appears, so far, knock on wood, to be our best crop of tomatoes ever, ripening now that the temperatures are under 90°F in the daytime. We also have a beautiful crop of peppers, one so hot that when I started cutting it to include in a soup, I started having trouble breathing and decided that one was probably not a good one for me. I like peppers, but I think I am allergic to one of them.
I am starting to feel alive again! Cooler temperatures give me so much more energy.
We had a wonderful, rainy summer, and now it is time for the fun gardening time.
ReBirth in the Midst of Chaos
“Come look! Quick, come look!”
As AdventureMan was making preparations to move the potted plants indoors, he discovered a Black Swallowtail chrysalis had split, and a new swallowtail was born. It wasn’t easy to capture this resting brand-new butterfly, newly out of the chrysalis, hidden deep within the bronze fennel plant, but so beautiful!
As I headed through the guest suite to the French doors, I saw something flutter . . . and it was a newly born Gulf Fritillary – in our guest room! We must have brought it in with the garden furniture – those chrysalis are often hard to spot.
“I need your help!” I called to AdventureMan. (I don’t handle insects!) He rushed to my assistance and was astonished to see another newborn.
If you had known AdventureMan in his business persona, managing multimillion dollar contracts, you would not believe this new AdventureMan, who cultivates a garden that attracts butterflies, bees and hummingbirds, who grows tomatoes and hot peppers, who takes photos and identifies rare birds flying overhead, and whose favorite time of all is spent with his grandson. 🙂
A Swallowtail is Born
“Come down! Come down!” AdventureMan is calling me from the garden, and I can tell it is something special.
“Look! He just came out of the chrysalis! He’s still wet!”
It is a beautiful new swallowtail butterfly. When the eggs are laid – it takes a mere second, a mere brush-by as the tiny egg is placed on the fennel – they are a mere 1/32 of an inch, you can barely see them with your bare eyes.
It is 78° in the cool of the morning, the best part of the day. The sun is coming up, and a new swallowtail is drying off, preparing to fly away to a new life.
Angry Summer Storm
KKKRRRRREEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!
BBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMM rumble. . . rumble. . . rumble . . rumble
I was almost awake even before AdventureMan said “It’s raining hard; do you want to go turn off the water?”
You know how marriages are, you get so in places you specialize. When we first moved here, I got up early on the hot summer mornings and watered. We have a watering system that costs a fortune to water-in all our low-water landscaping . . .
I gave up. The summer heat defeated me, and AdventureMan is now the gardener – and the yard is beautiful. We have vines on the back fence, butterfly gardens in several locations, bee attractors, hummingbird attractors . . . he takes good care of the yard.
But he doesn’t “get” the watering system, and so I go down and turn the switch from on to off.
This storm is a strong and powerful storm, but not serious. The sky is still light – it’s six in the morning – and I suspect it will be all over by time to go to water aerobics. Its already fading in intensity – and moving off. 🙂
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