Girl with Dragon Tattoo - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I have not written for a little time now, partly because the weather has not been good for photographing the garden recently, and progress on the greenhouse / potting shed has slowed by other garden tasks determined by the calendar as well as the weather, such as sowing seeds.
Recently I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which started as an amazing tour de force, of complex plotting with themes and sub-themes without the principle theme being immediately apparent. Eventually, the story settles down and the major theme, plot becomes more conventional with its simplification. I have avoided giving detail as that would spoil an intriguing aspect of the book for anyone beginning it. The story commences with a disgraced financial journalist and magazine owning partner in Sweden being confined to prison for libeling a major industrialist. The girl with the dragon tattoo is introduced as a misfit who obtains a job working for a security firm, who quickly recognise she has major investigative talents and assign her in that line of work, freelance. These two themes become entwined in a mystery of the death of a girl some 30 years earlier which the journalist is hired to uncover... The book is part of the Millennium Trilogy, written shortly before the death of its author Sven Larsson, I have the second volume, but have not yet commenced reading that one as I started reading another book while waiting for the next volume, The Girl who Played with Fire to be delivered in the post.
I picked up Gabriel Garcia Marquez's wonderful book Love in the Time of Cholera that I bought many years ago. I had thought I had read this books, as I read many of Marquez's books while reading a large number of Latin American fiction over a good many years earlier. The last book if his I read was The Melancholy Whore, the last one he has written that is published. But, shortly after beginning Love in the Time of Cholera I discovered that I had read only the first 40 or so pages, where the book mark lay. Why I never finished this, is lost to my memory; as not finishing a book is an anathema to me, even when the books is not enjoyable or turns out not to be so good as expected... I can only guess that some major work, reading or writing project prevented me finishing the book and I simply forgot to pick it up again or put it away during removal of home.
The book is beautifully written, a thoroughly modernist work, with a sense of hope and redemption at the end... I will write more on this book later, now other duties call me as I expected to write shorter comments than this...

New Combo Jazz, 20100131

Left is a photograph taken of the pianist with the Japanese trio, Visions. I watched the images, shadows cast on the wall, the light and shapes seemed to reflect the interacting piano and bass...

Garden Path

I have been trying to figure out how to cover the garden paths between the raised beds, as they are long it would be too expensive to lay any commercial materials.

Well, it got around the neighbourhood that I accept logs, wood from cutting down trees. Shortly after new year a guy stopped his small farmers' truck at our gate. I have never seen him before. In the back of the truck were logs, branches he had chopped from a tree. Do you want these he asked, I heard you took this sort of wood? Of course I replied, so we unloaded the lot. He then asked if I took smaller ones, and point to some thinner branches. Yes, I can use these for kindling, thank you. Off he went and returned twice, later for a third and fourth time. The second two he dumped conifer hedge trimmings. Gosh, what to say, no thank you after he had dumped half of them on the ground on his first return. Okay, what to do with these: 1) make a raised bed and slowly layer them to make a blueberry patch, as the firs acidify the ground; 2) Eureka, how about layering them lengthways along the paths, and make a covering. This will break down over time, will look nice and green, can be trimmed to remove the larger branches, looks good and even smells nice too... So that is what I did, see the photo left of the trimmings being laid. It is a bit springy to walk on, but where it has been frequently used it is flattening down, and it is also easy to run a wheelbarrow over it. So far, no problems, is this a win win?

Morning Snow

The path towards the top of the mountain side...

Morning Snow

The hillsides, or mountain side if you prefer...

Morning Snow

Colour, the first or Black and white, the second?

Morning Snow

The view from the university rooftop...

Morning Snow

Hannah rushing back indoors...

Morning Snow

We awoke this morning to find the ground covered with a layer of snow. Here, at 06:45 is Hannah in her gown walking in the snow on the path.

Jazz Photo- New Combo 20091218

Before when taking photographs I employed two cameras; one permanently held B&W film, the other colour slide film. B&W was usually given priority, so that film we in the better of the two camera, a Nikon F3, the other being an older Nikon FE. Now using a Nikon D300 the camera can be used for either without the problem of having to switch films and settings on the camera. But this feels is rather peculiar, because previously it was a simple matter of deciding this image would be better in B&W and that one in colour and choose the appropriate camera. Now the master image is always colour and the switch is made after the photographing session is complete. I provide two examples of the same picture, one is in B&W the other on colour. Which one do you prefer of the two, if any, and why? Please comment if you would...