African Shweshwe Cocoa
Why are you reporting this puzzle?
It's a perfect evening for hot cocoa with a chilly wind and snow starting to fall in the mountains. Tomorrow is due to be the coldest day of our winter to date. We aren't tropical enough to grow cocoa or coffee, my staple drinks. There is a tea plantation not too far from us that has become a constant drain on government coffers due to endemic mismanagement. When it does produce tea it is a very good quality orange pekoe.
One of my all time favourite books and authors is Out of Africa by Karen Blixen, also known as Isak Dinesen. She came to Africa with her husband Baron Bror Blixen and they farmed coffee in the Ngong Hills about 12 miles out of Nairobi. She was played with great sensitivity by Meryl Streep in the beautiful movie that also starred Robert Redford as her lover Denys Finch-Hatton, a British big game hunter.
Her descriptions of Africa are lyrical and enchanting, as well as deeply sad, written as they were through the lens of memory after she left Africa. The film starts with these words: "I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills." It continues: "The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the north, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the day-time you felt that you had got high up; near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold.
There are times of great beauty on a coffee farm. When the plantation flowered in the beginning of the rains, it was a radiant sight, like a cloud of chalk, in the mist of the drizzling rain."
Karen Blixen had a very difficult and rather tragic life but she had this piece of wisdom which resonates so well with me at the current time. "Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever."
One of my all time favourite books and authors is Out of Africa by Karen Blixen, also known as Isak Dinesen. She came to Africa with her husband Baron Bror Blixen and they farmed coffee in the Ngong Hills about 12 miles out of Nairobi. She was played with great sensitivity by Meryl Streep in the beautiful movie that also starred Robert Redford as her lover Denys Finch-Hatton, a British big game hunter.
Her descriptions of Africa are lyrical and enchanting, as well as deeply sad, written as they were through the lens of memory after she left Africa. The film starts with these words: "I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills." It continues: "The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the north, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the day-time you felt that you had got high up; near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold.
There are times of great beauty on a coffee farm. When the plantation flowered in the beginning of the rains, it was a radiant sight, like a cloud of chalk, in the mist of the drizzling rain."
Karen Blixen had a very difficult and rather tragic life but she had this piece of wisdom which resonates so well with me at the current time. "Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever."
Are you missing a jigsaw puzzle piece?
Don’t worry – it’s always there. And we have created a tool to help you find the darned puzzle piece ☺
Comments
Please sign in to comment. Don't have a profile? Join now! Joining is absolutely free and no personal information is required.