Happy New Year!

 

Art by Victo Ngai

Merry Christmas!

 

Almost Christmas!

 

The Lions of Fifth Avenue

 

The Lions of Fifth Avenue

Fiona Davis

Fiona Davis writes historical fiction and all the novels of hers that I've read so far have been set in New York City, each featuring a different iconic NYC building: The Barbizon Hotel for Women (in The Dollhouse), The Dakota Apartment Building, where John Lennon was shot (in The Address), Grand Central Railway Station (in The Masterpiece), the Chelsea Hotel (in The Chelsea Girls). I've enjoyed the way Davis incorporates specific features of each building in the plotlines, and have also relished the stories she tells featuring strong female characters. 

So I've been looking forward to reading her newest novel, The Lions of Fifth Avenue since I first heard about it. If you are familiar with NYC at all, you may already know that the Lions refer to the giant statues situated near the front steps of the New York Public Library that welcome patrons and tourists from all over the world. Nicknamed by former Mayor LaGuardia during the 1920's Depression they have been since known as Patience and Fortitude. 

The Library is only one part of the New York Public Library System, but it is a major feature of the city, taking up 2 city blocks on a prime location at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street. Built on the location and foundations of a former reservoir, it is lifted up from street level, giving it an imposing facade from every direction. 

Before I started in on the novel, I googled the map to find its exact location, just east of Bryant Park and also searched for photos, both ex- and in-terior. Built in the Beaux-Arts style, the New York Public Library, opening in May 1911 after 9 years of construction, was the largest marble structure in the US at the time. The interior is just as impressive as the exterior, with many fine marble details, sculptures, stairways, woodwork, etc. Even the ceilings are extraordinary. The Rose Main Reading Room, on the 3rd level, has 52 ft ceilings and rests on 7 floors of metal stacks. 

A complex system of search and retrieval, historically involving pneumatic tubes (remember them in the old department stores?), but now upgraded to an online presence, exists for the items stored in the stacks when users make requests. Through the years additional storage/stacks have been added to the building and stretch out underneath Bryant Park. It would be very interesting to take a guided tour of this building but the YouTube version is also very good. If you feel this one is a bit too long, just search YouTube to find shorter ones. But this tour gives you access to the stacks, even the moveable stacks under Bryant Park, which is interesting, and also reminds me of when I had free rein to the many layers of stacks as a summer student at the National Research Council in 1965.

Since this Main Branch of the New York Public Library is for reference only, nothing may be removed from the premises and this is the feature that Fiona Davis built her story on. That, as well as the fact that when the library opened, there was an on-site apartment for the superintendent of the building and his family to live in, long since unused but providing a fascinating historical detail.

Using a dual timeline to tell the story Davis nicely links up the old and the new. There are lots of architectural details in this book as well as a good mystery with twists and turns that keep the reader turning pages. Readers will also enjoy the theme of women's rights which crops up in most Fiona Davis fiction.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Lions of Fifth Avenue and am keen to tour the Library in person someday.

Waste to Energy: CopenHill

Amager Bakke in Copenhagen Denmark is the world's cleanest waste to energy facility in the world. Opened just over 1 year ago, in October 2019, it serves nearly 700,000 people in the surrounding area, bringing their trash in up to 300 trailer loads per day and delivering the heat energy to keep their homes warm.

What really makes this facility stand out though is the building surrounding it. Designed by Bjarke Ingels, it is an eye-catching tall facade with a slope on the side that provides recreation possibilities for all: a ski hill for varying styles and abilities, a climbing wall that is, at 260 ft or 80 metres, the tallest climbing wall in the world as well as hiking trails up the hill. People who prefer not to hike up with their skis or use the tow can ride an elevator that gives views inside to the facility and outwards to the beauty of Copenhagen harbour.

You might be wondering, how is Copenhagen, with only a few days of snow per year, able to sustain a ski hill? The skiing surface is an Italian-made material called Neveplast Artificial Snow, which provides a nearly snow-like experience for skiers and snowboarders while at the same time, trees and plants along the edges enhance the enjoyment. 

The Giant Hand of Vrynwy

 

This is the Giant Tree of Vrynwy in Powys, North Wales. Unfortunately, I didn't see it on my 2018 Offa's Dyke Walk. In fact, I just learned about it when someone recently tweeted it. It caught my imagination so I had to investigate and here's what I discovered. (Covid adventures - haha)

Of course, when you see something on Twitter you tend to think it's something new, something that has happened recently, but in fact, this sculpture was completed in 2011. It's located on an estate with a reservoir where people often walk in a forest of giant redwoods called the Giants of Vyrnwy and this tree used to be the tallest of all of them. 

In 2011 someone noticed some significant storm damage to the tree that caused the top part to be removed so as not to fall on any unsuspecting walkers. The search started for an artist to give new life to the tree as a sculpture and one thing after another, Simon O'Rourke, an artist living in Wales, found himself with a new project.

Scaffolding was erected, not an easy task on the uneven ground around the tree and work began. O'Rourke, inspired by earlier artists such as Rodin decided on a hand reaching for the sky as an appropriate symbol for a giant tree and began work using a chainsaw and smaller carving tools.  

The completed structure is 50 ft. tall. O'Rourke modelled the hand after his own and says the experience humbled him, reminding him of "just how insignificant we humans are compared to some of the living organisms on this earth."

After 2 days to erect the scaffold and another 6 days of intense carving, with the addition of two pieces for the thumb and little finger since the tree wasn't wide enough to provide them, the work was done. Tung oil was applied and there it stands for all to see. 

Visit Simon O'Rourke's website to view his portfolio of many more amazing sculptures.

What's a Henna Artist?

  

When someone asked me last week, "What exactly is a henna artist?", I realized I'd missed an opportunity to make last week's book review even longer. 😉

So here's a short tutorial by someone, myself, who had to look up some of the details about henna art in order to share them here.

  

Of course, there's a plethora of online information about henna art (thanks Google!) so let's start with what it is:

Henna designs are a type of body art that often resemble tattoos, but are not applied in the same way and are not permanent. Henna art, called mehndi in India, is the application of designs on parts of the body by a person called a henna artist using a paste made up of ground henna root paste (often sold as a prepared henna powder) mixed with a liquid of some kind - water, tea, lemon juice etc. The design is applied using a piping bag and tip and other instruments, such wooden sticks to get the desired effect. The paste is left to dry; the longer it stays on the body, the darker the design. Application of henna on frequently washed areas, such as hands, will not last as long as other parts, but generally, the design only lasts about 2 to 3 weeks. 

  

Henna art is popular on the Indian subcontinent and is also common in Arab culture where the designs can be quite different, although, of course, a henna artist is usually willing to give whatever effect is desired. And does it really need to be said that henna art is not bounded by geography? Wherever people have immigrated to, there you will also find henna art. 

My understanding is that henna art is especially desirable for social occasions such as engagements, weddings, birthdays as well as for cultural and religious holidays. 

I hope you're as impressed with the skill of henna artists as I am.

Most of the information above and some of the photos were gleaned from this website: Authority Tattoo, where even more details may be found.

The Henna Artist

 

The Henna Artist

Alka Joshi

I was eagerly looking forward to reading The Henna Artist and it didn't disappoint. 

Set in 1950's India the story follows the main character, Lakshmi through the ups and downs of her life. Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

Escaping from an abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone to the vibrant 1950's city of Jaipur. There she becomes the most highly requested henna artist - and confidant - to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own...

Know for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who could ruin her reputation and her livelihood. As she pursues her dream of an independent life, she is startled one day when she is confronted by her husband, who has tracked her down these many years later with a high-spirited young girl in tow - a sister Lakshmi never knew she had. Suddenly the caution that she has carefully cultivated as protection is threatened. Still she perseveres, applying her talents and lifting up those that surround her as she does. 

In the front of the book there is a dismayingly long list of characters, but it turns out the characters are easy to sort out without paging back and forth too often. In the back of the book there is a useful glossary which I turned to more often.

The many themes through the book - cultural differences, including the caste system, the end of the British raj and the beginning of self-rule for India, the role of mothers and mothers-in-law in families, the differences between western and eastern medicine, abusive relationships, teenage troubles to name a few provide plenty of fodder for book club discussions. 

I highly recommend The Henna Artist.

Remembrance Day

 

We remember

How to Weigh Yourself

Ok, after all that pie and Halloween candy, it's time for a weigh-in before the Christmas goodies hit us. ;)

Happy Halloween!

There were so many awesome costume ideas on Twitter last year!

Donnie Piercey (Mr. Piercey) is a fifth-grade educator in Kentucky who seems to be a bit of a techie as well as having all kinds of creative ideas. I guess he's teaching remotely this fall and every morning he posts an animation that he has created for the kids to watch while they are "gathering" online. 

One of his ideas last year was to give the kids an assignment for Halloween: become a word from the dictionary in a way that portrays the meaning of the word.  Here are a few of the ideas the kids had:

(Bookish)

(Dishevelled)

(Incognito)

(Indiscernible)

As I said, Piercey has all kinds of ideas and he has a YouTube channel that gives tutorials on using Google Classroom and Google Earth that look like they might be really helpful. On his Twitter account he provides lots of helpful links to resources. 

On TV theme, there's Schitt's Creek, with Eugene Levy, Dan Levy, Catherine O'Hara and Annie Murphy. 

Are you a fan? When it first started I was turned off by the title of this popular Canadian series, and not being much of a TV watcher anyway, I never got into it. But when the series finally announced its end, viewers around the world paid it tribute, visited (bizarrely, in my opinion) the motel where it was filmed to take selfies and have used Schitt's Creek for Halloween inspiration.

Finally, how about this cute version of spaghetti and meatballs!

        

  

Astrological Pie

Does your pie preference match your astrological sign? Mine, Aquarius, is accurate. 😋

Code Name Hélène

Code Name Hélène, Ariel Lawhon

This 2020 novel is the fiction-based-on-fact story of a real person, Nancy Wake Fiocca who was a spy and a fearless leader of the Maquis, the French Resistance during WWll. She was also known by the code names Hélène, Madame Andrée, Lucienne Carlier, The White Mouse.

Nancy Wake, New Zealand-born (1912), Australian-raised, the youngest of six children and a nurse, left home at an early age to seek out a life for herself. She came to France, needed a living, so enrolled in a secretarial course and upon completion was able to get herself hired as a freelance journalist by Hearst Corporation. Her stories were published but never with her byline – the common practice at the time being to publish articles by men, never women. Her journalistic career found her visiting Germany and Austria during the rise of the Nazi Party and she witnessed such brutality that it changed her forever. When war broke out and France was occupied, she was determined to do her part against Nazism.

Wake, an extremely determined young woman, was not inclined to take no for an answer and knew her own mind with a confidence that is admirable. She left behind the journalism career upon marrying her French husband, industrialist Henri Fiocca, moving to be with him in Marseille. By this time she spoke French expertly, well enough to pass for a native. In 1939 Henri left to go defend the Maginot Line, a string of concrete fortresses that the French Government guaranteed would protect France from a German onslaught. Nancy wasn’t far behind, bringing her own truck, converted to a make-shift ambulance to the same northeast part of France to help as much as she could in the war effort.

When eventually in May 1940, the Maginot Line was bypassed by the German army and France became occupied and divided, Nancy Wake headed home to Marseille and while waiting for her husband to return became involved in clandestine work, delivering fake id papers to people needing to escape. This work eventually led to a need for her own escape in a treacherous trek over the Pyrenees to Spain. From there she went to the UK where she was accepted and trained by the British Special Operation Executive who paraachuted her back into France to assist and train the Maquis, coordinate the ordering and delivery of much-needed supplies and to ensure that post-D-Day and other targets set by the Allies would be carried out on the pre-arranged schedule. Sadly, Henri Fiocca was killed by the Gestapo in 1943.

All of the work Nancy Wake did in France she did not only with supreme confidence in her own abilities but with a spiritied vivacity that won her compatriots' respect as leader of the Résistance. She stayed with them through D-Day in June 1944 as well as the landing of the Allied Forces in the south of France in August 1944.

I don’t usually give this much away about books I review but this story really grabbed me and stayed in my mind. The author, Ariel Lawhon, carried out a great deal of research, reading numerous biographies and even Nancy Wake’s autobiography to get the facts straight. In the author’s note at the end of the book, Lawhon confesses that she has bent some of the times and facts for the furtherance of the novel. I think we can forgive her! Nancy Wake’s story is expertly told. I couldn’t get my nose out of the book, but at the same time, some of the events were so graphic and intense, I often had to look away.

Ariel Lawhon leaves Nancy Wake's story at the end of the war but in fact, Wake remarried, recieved many accolades and honours throughout her life, had several more careers, including as an aspirational politician, wrote her autobiography and lived into her old age, dying in England in 2011. 

A surprising note: I ordered Code Name Hélene through the curbside service at my local library. Despite it being newly-published and only recently acquired, there were no other holds on it and last I checked, still no holds on this story of a remarkable accomplished and courageous woman. That's really surprising!

Highly recommended.