I Met A Manx Cat January 13, 2016

Yesterday I met a Manx Cat – no tail, long hair, black and orange markings – I didn’t have a chance to get a photo – the cat was very possessive of the chair I would have liked to sit in while my recorder was being mended.  I didn’t really mind standing – I had a most interesting and wide ranging chat watching my alto recorder being recorked with a sort of waxed string.  On the wall behind him the woodworker/craftsman/repair man had a fascinating collection of African masks.  The conversation branched to roasting one’s own coffee and using coffee beans from Kenya – which morphed into my recollections of having tea in Karen Blixen’s home in Ngong.  And playing golf years later after Karen Blixen’s former coffee estate became Karen Country Country Club.

  one of Wikipedia’s Manx cats – this one looks like my Calico Cat Katerina except for the tail

 Katerina with her long tail

  another of Wikipedia’s Manx cats

  from Wikipedia Manx v Coon – the cat on the right more closely resembles the chair hugging  (hogging) cat I met yesterday.

 

Famous Pioneering Women December 1, 2015

Beryl Markham – aviator, horse trainer, writer

 

A marvelous book.  I have read so much about Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen. Elspeth Huxley, Beryl Matkham and others who made Kenya their home and played a special part in the history of this country.  I lived in Kenya for 2 years in the 1960’s.  This was well within the lifetime of Beryl Markham – but alas I never met her.

However I brushed history when I had tea at Karen Blixen’s home near the Ngong Hills.  This was long after Karen had sold her farm and left Kenya.  Her former home was temporarily being occupied by a Danish couple whom I knew through the University.  Little did I realize the role that house had played in the lives of the early settlers.

But when I lived in Kenya again in the early 1990’s, I did appreciate the history of the golf course I played on – Karen Country Club had once been Karen Blixen’s coffee plantation.