The return of the cat

 Die kat kom weer

Since the cat that currently owns me, KoningKat, returned form her six months stay with Duke, the owner of my children Vince, Mary and Jonathan, she has been as temperamental as I always knew her to be. (I am second-hand: I was previously owned by KatteRasie).

She does not eat the dry Mackerel cat food, but insist on uncooked chicken livers. A full 250g portion per day. 
and rattles the blinds until we adjust it to let in the winter sunrays.
and acts the suffering-cat-character in front of the switched-off electric heater.
and eats the flowers from the vase, but only when we have guests.
and many more deliberate and spiteful annoyances. 
and T. S. Eliot's collection of whimsical poems about feline psychology and sociology: Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939).

The Naming of Cats (excerpt from Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats)
The full text is available at http://www.moggies.co.uk/html/oldpssm.html
A video clip is available at http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=The+Naming+of+Cats&docid=608045954881947088&mid=94B63CCA90CC0BDF5D5094B63CCA90CC0BDF5D50&view=detail&FORM=VIRE7#view=detail&mid=94B63CCA90CC0BDF5D5094B63CCA90CC0BDF5D50


The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter

When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there's the name that the family use daily,
Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James, Such as Victor or Jonathan, George or Bill Bailey
All of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep up his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Such as Munkustrap, Quaxo, or Coricopat.

But above and beyond there's still one name left over,And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover
But THE CAT HIMSELF KNOWS, and will never confess.

 

 

 

I found this list of cats and their peculiarities that are documented in literature.

Some of my favourites are Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat, Dr Seuss' Cat in a Hat, and T. S. Eliot's Old Deuteronomy and Macavity.

Cats in literature

Character	Earliest Appearance and Author	Notes
Alonzo	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot	A black and white tom, and is often considered the 'second-hand-man' to Munkustrap. He saves Demeter from Macavity, and is the first to attack him after he defeats Munkustrap.
Aristotle	Aristotle by Dick King-Smith	A kitten, who depends on his nine lives and the magical powers of his owner (a friendly witch) in order to emerge safely from various adventures.
Bangs	Sam, Bangs and Moonshine by Evaline Ness
Behemoth	The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov	An abnormally large black cat who walks on his hind legs and carries a pistol. Being a member of the devil’s entourage, he is wicked and devious. He has a penchant for chess, vodka, and pickled mushrooms.
Bombalurina	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot	A flirtatious red Queen with a white chest and black spots and marks.
Borregad	Lyrec by Gregory Frost	Borregad and Lyrec are of an energy-based race who can shapeshift. When he and Lyrec hunt their archenemy into another world, Lyrec takes human shape, but Borregad has only enough strength to take the form of a cat. Borregad, a Jester figure, finds a variant of Guinness stout to cheer himself in this fantasy world.
Bustopher Jones	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot	A parody of an Edwardian gentleman of leisure and is described as the St. James's Street cat, a regular visitor to many gentlemen's clubs in the area, including Drones, Blimp's, and The Tomb. He is also extremely obese.
Carbonel	Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh	King of the Cats, presumed missing by his subjects ever since the witch Mrs. Cantrip abducted him. Unfortunately he can't return to his throne until the enslavement spell Mrs. Cantrip cast on him is undone.
Cat	Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote	Pet of Holly Golightly.
Cat	It's Like This, Cat by Emily Cheney Neville	A stray cat that 14-year-old Dave Mitchell adopts as a pet and confidant.
Cat Morgan	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot	Retired and works as a doorman at the book publishers Faber and Faber. He is a gruff but likeable character.
The Cat in the Hat	The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss	A mischievous anthropomorphic feline from Dr Seuss's book of the same name
Cheshire Cat	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll	Sometimes raises philosophical points that annoy or baffle Alice. It does, however, appear to cheer her up when it turns up suddenly at the Queen of Hearts' croquet field, and when sentenced to death baffles everyone by having made its head appear without its body, sparking a massive argument between the executioner and the King and Queen of Hearts about whether something that does not have a body can indeed be beheaded.
"Church" (Winston Churchill)	Pet Sematary by Stephen King	This unfortunate cat is killed by a truck, buried in the ancient burial ground of the title, then returns home, in a manner reminiscent of the dead son in the horror story "The Monkey's Paw".
Coricopat	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot	Male twin to Tantomile. Coricopat and Tantomile are often portrayed as psychic cats, as they sense the presence of danger before it becomes apparent to the other characters.
Crookshanks	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling	The pet cat of Hermione Granger. He is described as having a "squashed face," which was inspired by a real cat Rowling once saw, which she said looked like it had run face first into a brick wall, most likely a Persian. Hermione buys Crookshanks from a shop in Diagon Alley out of sympathy, as nobody wants him because of his behaviour and his squashed looking-face. Rowling has confirmed that Crookshanks is half Kneazle, an intelligent, cat-like creature who can detect when they are around untrustworthy people, explaining his higher than normal cat intelligence and stature.
Demeter	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Dinah	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll	Alice's pet kitten in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. By Through the Looking-Glass she is an adult with kittens of her own.
Dulcie	The Joe Grey Mysteries by Shirley Rousseau Murphy	A talking orange tabby cat. She has solved numerous murders and other crimes with the help of her mate Joe Grey. She is also a library cat.
Fritti Tailchaser	Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams	Tailchaser joins with friends Pouncequick and Roofshadow on an epic quiest.
Firestar	Warriors: The Darkest Hour by Erin Hunter	The main character for the first arc of Warriors books (the "Original Series") as well as a major supporting character for the subsequent arcs.
Ginger	The Tale of Ginger and Pickles by Beatrix Potter	A yellow tomcat who ran a shop with his partner Pickles, a terrier.
Ginger	The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis	A talking cat of Narnia, he is punished for his evil deeds by having his ability for speech removed and being banned from Aslan's Country.
Great Rumpus Cat	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot	A hero in the world of the book and the musical.
Greebo	Discworld by Terry Pratchett	A foul-tempered one-eyed grey tomcat whose owner, Nanny Ogg, insists against all the evidence that he is a sweet, harmless kitten. In the course of the books, he has killed two vampires, eating at least one of them in the novel Witches Abroad: "The bat squirmed under his claw. It seemed to Greebo's small cat brain that it was trying to change its shape, and he wasn't having any of that from a mouse with wings on."
Griddlebone	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot	Companion to Mungojerrie
Growltiger	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot	A pirate cat.
Gummitch	Space-Time for Springers by Fritz Leiber	As Fritz Leiber, a cat-lover, describes him, "Gummitch was a superkitten, as he knew very well, with an I.Q. of about 160. Of course, he didn't talk. But everybody knows that I.Q. tests based on language ability are very one-sided. Besides, he would talk as soon as they started setting a place for him at table and pouring him coffee." Gummitch doesn't get to prove himself by coffee; he proves himself by saving a life in his household.
Harry Cat	The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden	Friend to Tucker Mouse and Chester Cricket
Joe Grey	The Joe Grey Mysteries by Shirley Rousseau Murphy	A talking gray-and-white tomcat that has solved various murders and other crimes with the help of his mate Dulcie. Joe Grey has a docked tail after his tail was broken by a drunkard.
Jellylorum	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Jennie	Jennie by Paul Gallico	A young boy named Peter is transformed into a cat after an accident, and is taken in by Jennie and taught the ways of cats.
Jennyanydots	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Jupiter	The Deptford Mice by Robin Jarvis	Worshipped as the Lord of All by the rats, feared like a dark god of the sewers.
Kitty	Bad Kitty by Nick Bruel	She is a housecat who wreaks havoc around her owner's home when she is in a bad mood, hence the name. She has black fur and a white tuft of fur on her chest.
Liszt	"Edward the Conqueror" by Roald Dahl	A woman believes a stray cat who appreciates her piano music is a reincarnation of Franz Liszt, to the disgust of her cat-hating husband.
Macavity	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot	A devilish cat. Part of the poem about him says, "Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macavity, For he's a fiend in feline shape, a monster of depravity".
Maisie MacKenzie	Maisie series of children's books by Aileen Paterson	An anthropomorphic cat who lives in Morningside, Edinburgh
Maurice	The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett	The eponymous fast-talking confidence trickster cat who operates a 'pied-piper' scam in the Discworld series of books - organising teams of rats to infest a town and then rapidly withdraw after payment to a 'tame' human.
Mehitabel	Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis	An alley cat who is the best friend of the cockroach Archy.
Mickey Miggs	The Kitten Who Thought He Was A Mouse by Miriam Norton	An abandoned kitten raised by the Miggs mouse family, who was not aware that he was a cat until he was befriended by and the children Peggy and Paul and the household cat Hazel.
Midnight Louie	Crystal Days by Carole Nelson Douglas	20 Pound (9 kg) tomcat companion to (and fellow investigator with) amateur sleuth, Temple Barr occasionally assisted by his sire 3 O'Clock Louie, his Ma Barker and her 24th Street gang, and his kit Midnight Louise.
Minoes	Minoes by Annie M.G. Schmidt	A cat who gets transformed into a human by a chemical accident.
Miss Moppet	The Story of Miss Moppet by Beatrix Potter	One of Tabitha Twitchit's daughters.
Mister	The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher	A bob-tailed grey tomcat belonging to the wizard Harry Dresden. He is often used as a vessel for Bob (a spirit of intellect) to inhabit on intelligence missions.
Mittens	The Tale of Tom Kitten by Beatrix Potter	One of Tabitha Twitchit's daughters.
Mr. Mistoffelees	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Mrs. Norris	Harry Potter Series	The pet cat of Hogwarts caretaker, Argus Filch. She patrols the corridors of the school looking for students skipping class, often foreshadowing the appearance of Mr. Filch himself.
Mog	Mog the Forgetful Cat by Judith Kerr	Faithful pet of the Thomas family.
Moxie	The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman	Will's cat who leads him through the window to Citta'gazze, where he meets Lyra. Later, Will's daemon settles as a cat.
Mungojerrie	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Munkustrap	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Nigger Man	The Rats in the Walls by H. P. Lovecraft	Plays a pivotal role.
Noboru Wataya	The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami	Later renamed Mackerel.
Old Deuteronomy	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Orlando	A Camping Holiday by Kathleen Hale	The eponymous hero.
Peter	The Smile of the Sphinx by William F. Temple	This cat is thought, by the narrator, to be an extraordinarily stupid cat "who could never learn the simplest of tricks"; in fact, Peter is extraordinarily brilliant. He is part of a race of Felidae who originally lived on the Moon and who came to Earth, ages ago, to enjoy being spoiled by the Egyptians. This amusing tale explains why dogs howl at the Moon, why the Great Sphinx of Giza has its shape, and even why the Moon has craters.
Petronius the Arbiter (Pete)	The Door into Summer by Robert A. Heinlein	The smart, loving cat of protagonist Daniel Boone Davis, who occasionally carries him in a carrying-bag and gives him saucers of Ginger ale to drink. Dan calls him Petronius the Arbiter because he thinks that Pete is a good arbiter (judge) of personality. If Pete doesn't like someone, Dan will distrust that person; Pete has always been proved right.
Pixel	The Cat Who Walks Through Walls by Robert Heinlein	The title character of the book, who has an inexplicable tendency to be wherever the narrator happens to be. In one scene Pixel does, in fact, walk through a wall, and it is explained that Pixel is too young to know that such behavior is impossible.
Pluto	The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe	Pluto is the narrator's cat. After becoming an alcoholic he starts abusing the cat, then trying unsuccessfully to kill it. When his wife intervenes in one incident he kills her instead then bricks the body up in a wall. The narrator is caught when the police come and hear sounds behind the wall, where the narrator accidentally entombed the still-living cat along with its mistress.
Ralph	Ralph, or, What's Eating the Folks in Fatchakulla County? by Ned Crabb	Ralph weighs over 200 pounds, so he is a large kitty, but not a mean one, in this comic novel set in a fictional county of Florida. This murder mystery gives the "Who Did It?" answer away on the dust jacket illustration and becomes a fun "Whydunit" as the novel explores various characters, including the family that raises giant cats and a number of local villains who are eaten.
Ralph	Rotten Ralph by Jack Gantos	A mischievous red cat who enjoys playing mean, practical jokes on his family.
Ribby	The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan by Beatrix Potter	A cat with a love for mouse pie, a good friend of the dog Duchess and cousin to Tabitha.
Rum Tum Tugger	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Rumpelteazer	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Sagwa	Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat by Amy Tan	A kitten who gained her Siamese markings by accident. She is capable of writing in Chinese with her tail.
Scarface Claw	Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy and various sequels by Lynley Dodd	A tough cat who scares Hairy Maclary and his canine companions, and even scares himself.
Simpkin	The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter	The Tailor's pet cat who fetches an essential cherry-coloured silk twist, but angrily hides it after he finds the tailor released his captive mice. After a change of heart, he gives back the twist.
Skimbleshanks	Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot
Slinky Malinki	Slinky Malinki by Lynley Dodd	The stalking and lurking adventurous cat who is a common cat during the day but becomes a thief as night falls.
Sprockets	Mission to Universe by Gordon R. Dickson	Sprockets is a stowaway feral kitten who becomes spaceship mascot. The crew members superstitiously believe that his finally learning to purr will portend success in their search for an inhabitable planet.
Squire Gingivere	Mossflower by Brian Jacques	Squire Julian Gingivere was odd among cats in the fact that he was a vegetarian. He lived with the owl Captain Snow, but the owl's appetite for meat, his bad table manners and their conflicting personalities led to a disagreement and then separation.
Stew-Cat, Blue-Cat and Clue-Cat	The Thief of Always by Clive Barker	These three cats are the friendly familiars of the magical Holiday House.
Tabitha Twitchit	The Tale of Tom Kitten by Beatrix Potter	The mother of three kittens Miss Moppet, Mittens and Tom Kitten, who tries hard to cope with their mischievous behaviour.
Tao	The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford	A Siamese cat who accompanies Luath, a Labrador Retriever, and Bodger, a Bull Terrier, on a 300-mile journey through the Canadian wilderness to rejoin their human family.
Tim	Tim the Travelling Cat	A cat tries to make it back to its owner in Britain during the War. Out of print.
Tobermory	"Tobermory" (in The Chronicles of Clovis) by H. H. Munro	In a short story by Saki, a cat is taught to talk, but knows too many personal facts about people and is all too willing to talk about them. He is taught by mild-mannered Cornelius Appin, who calls Tobermory "a Beyond-cat of extraordinary intelligence". When Tobermory embarrasses everyone present by proving to be a consummate gossip, his owner attempts to poison him. Saki's biographer comments, "The cat eludes the strychnine left out for him and falls instead in combat with a big yellow tom from the rectory. Not a hero's death but an honorable one, and comedy depends heavily on a sense of honor."
Tom Kitten	The Tale of Tom Kitten by Beatrix Potter	A curious but disobedient kitten in the children's stories "The Tale of Tom Kitten" and "The Roly Poly Pudding".
Thistleclaw	Bluestar's Prophecy by Erin Hunter	An ambitious grey tom living in ThunderClan. Tigerstar/claw's mentor.
Tristram and Yseult	"The Hart" by Greg Costikyan	These two cats belong to the narrator of a short fantasy story and are described fondly: "Tristram and Yseult twined about my legs, meowing, and holding their tails high; they got stew, too, and a bit of milk."
Ungatt Trunn	Lord Brocktree by Brian Jacques	An evil wildcat who conquers the mountain stronghold Salamandastron. But the good badger Brocktree comes to regain the mountain.
Velcro	"A Gift Before Leaving" by W. R. Thompson	Velcro, over twenty years old, lives with Hannah in a futuristic, artificially intelligent house. Velcro finds that whenever he meows, the house delivers a full bowl of cat food, and he gains five pounds before Hannah finds out and reprograms the house.

Unnamed cats

Character	Earliest Appearance	Notes
Black kitten who eats human flesh	Cat's Eyes by Lee Jordan	A mild horror story in which a black kitten becomes an abnormally large black cat, who haunts the isolated house of the heroine, Rachel. In its kittenhood, it had led the other thirty cats of Old Miss Mulgrave to dine on her when she died in her home and the cats were starving. Rachel fears it is stalking her and her baby, with reason: "It was starving... Now it would eat anything."
Cat in the Picture, The	"The Cat in the Picture" by Wright Morris	In this macabre tale originally published in a 1958 issue of Esquire, a black cat slowly displaces a retired Captain from his bed, his wife, and his home. The shocking ending is worthy of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. More than one commentator compared the writing with Poe's.
Various far-future cats	"Puss In Boots" by Ronald Anthony Cross	This science fiction story describes a world full of far-future cats on a planet where "cats were the closest thing to a religion that they had" and where cats "wandered freely and slept wherever they chose. There were huge communal cat boxes everywhere...filled with some form of brightly coloured pellets, which automatically emptied and were refilled with more of the same stuff." The fact that cats are no longer fed actual meat is a clue to the mystery in the story, about whether men are any longer real men.

 

the house I call "home" now . . . (4)

Jou kombers en my matras

Our study is a Colonial combination; from the English claw-and-ball desk and bankers desk lamp to the Indian sari that became a curtain drape.

The inspiration for the design of the claw-and-ball foot came from a Chinese motif of a dragon’s claw clutching a pearl or crystal ball.



Chinese dragon claw-and-ball design

The lion claw-and-ball foot made its appearance in English baroque furniture designs.

Victorian lion feet bathtub claw-and-ball feet

In America an eagle’s talon replaced the English lion claw.

 



Cast iron eagle claw and glass ball design of 1890



Christo had his desk made with 8 curved claw-and-ball legs.

 

Bankers desk lamps are rich in history and the basic idea of the design can be traced back to the Renaissance and the Baroque periods. During the Edwardian style, the advocate or bankers lamp and shade became popular. The green shade protected the office workers from the harsh light of the first electric incandescent globes.

I made the cushion on the Victorian two-seater from an embroidered lappie I bought in the old city of Yerushaláyim (or Jerusalem) at the end of 2006.

Christo bought the sari at Little India on our visit to Singapore in 2012. A sari is associated with grace and is widely regarded as a symbol of Indian culture. I love this room, and the sari has a lot to do with my affection!

A full view of the study is not available, because the plastic crates full of books will spoil the illusion of a stylish room!

the house I call "home" now . . . (3)

Jou kombers en my matras . . .

Christo bought a huge 3 x 4m carpet about two years ago. The salesman called it a Holbein. We googled "Holbein" and discovered that it wasn't just a sales gimmick: Holbein carpet actually exists!

Holbein carpet are a type of Ottoman carpets taking their name from Hans Holbein the Younger, due to their depiction in European Renaissance paintings.

 Hans Hobein 1497 (self portrait)

Holbein designs are sub-divided into four types; they are the commonest designs of Anatolian carpet seen in Western Renaissance paintings, and continued to be produced for a long period. All are purely geometric and use a variety of arrangements of lozenges, crosses and octagonal motifs within the main field.

TYPE IV
The large-pattern Holbein. The square compartments have octagons or other "gul" motifs from the small-pattern types between them.

The Ambassadors with a Type IV Holbein carpet on the table.
 

Christo owned this Type IV before we knew about Holbein.

TYPE III
Another large-pattern Holbein. The motifs in the field inside the border are large squares filled with decoration, placed regularly, with narrow strips between them containing no "gul" motifs.



Master of Saint Giles, Mass of Saint Giles, c. 1500, with a Type III Holbein carpet.

Christo's marvellous 3 x 4 m Type III Holbein.

TYPE II
The Type II Holbein or Lotto carpet is a hand knotted carpet having a pattern that was primarily produced during the 16th and 17th centuries along the Aegean coast of Anatolia, Turkey, but also copied in various parts of Europe. It is characterized by a lacy arabesque, usually in yellow on a red ground, often with blue details. The name, "Lotto carpet", refers to the inclusion of carpets with this pattern in paintings by the 16th-century Venetian painter Lorenzo Lotto.

TYPE I
My contribution to the five Holbeins we now possess, are two Type I: Small-pattern Holbein. The motifs are small, and usually of several different types that recur regularly. These two carpets are much older and very well-worn. Sommer al goed deurgeloop. The one  I bought in Kopenhavn and the other I got from an auction about a decade ago. 


 

Type I (180 x 200 cm) from an antique auction in Bloemfontein.
KoningKat's all-time favourite!

 

Type I (60 x 90 cm) from Kopenhavn.

A Type I Holbein carpet made in Anatolia during the 16th century.

 

 

 

the house I call "home" now . . . (2)

Jou kombers en my matras . . .

A sideboard was traditionally used in the dining room for serving food, for displaying serving dishes such as silver, and for storage. It usually consists of a set of cabinets, or cupboards, and one or more drawers, all topped by a flat display surface for conveniently holding food, serving dishes, and even lighting devices.

The earliest versions of the sideboard familiar today made their appearance in the 18th century, but they gained most of their popularity during the 19th century as households became prosperous enough to dedicate a room solely to dining. In later years, sideboards have been placed in living rooms or other areas where household items might be displayed.

Some of the earliest production of sideboards arose in England, France, Belgium and Scotland.

 

 

Christo's the emboya sideboard was made by master craftsman I. B. Voster (off-Harvey road, Bloemfontein). My sideboard was made as a toy, but I have no knowledge about the maker of my piece of furniture.

 

We unpacked all our wine-glasses on Christo's sideboard, next to my miniature sideboard. 

 

the house I call "home" now . . . (1)

Jou kombers en my matras en daar lê die ding!

At Kirkens Genbrug in Rosengården 5, Kobenhvn  . . .

. . . I discovered this lived-in Tjekke-rug made in Turkmenistan for the entrance of Christo's reception hall.

 

I like the informal atmosphere my table and Christo's chairs bring to the entrance of our home.

 

 

And Christo's entrance hall double-up as a hot-house for my herb garden!

 



The interest runs in the family . . .

Yesterday my niece Janice graduated first class with distinction Simon Fraser University - a public research university in British Columbia, Canada.

She also got an award for the highest academic standing in her graduating class.




Janice with father Janneman and mother Trixie.

Janice obtained a BA in Archaeology and a certificate in Cultural Resource Management.

I am even more excited about this wonderful achievement, because our interests are so similar.

Except from my PhD thesis:
My earliest memories are of myself as a toddler collecting artefacts. Nothing special or specific, just whatever I felt like keeping or having: a button, a china fragment, a doll’s hand or an empty compressed powder compact. I would ponder over who the owner might have been, the possible use of the item and the circumstances in which it might have been used. Then I would store it with vaguely related items in one of my containers. I enjoyed showing people my treasures, though they often did not share the value I saw in my prizes. These randomly selected items became part of my frequent daydreams.

Almost five decades later, I am still collecting random artefacts and pondering over them. I still store and show them to others, who still often do not see the value as I do. And still these items become useful during my frequent daydreams. Only now my artefacts are often electronic; my pondering is research; my daydreaming is reflecting; and my sharing is autoethnography. In both my professional and vocational day-to-day activities as a visual artist, visual facilitator, visual learner and visual publicist, I collect visuals: mostly photographs and sketches that interest me. I store them in one of my electronic devices. When I need to communicate by creating a painting, a lecture, a press release or an article, I reflect on my treasures.
Available at: http://etd.uovs.ac.za/cgi-bin/ETD-browse/view_etd?URN=etd-11142013-121707
BA Archaeology was my first choice of study, but the degree was not available at the university I attended, so I opted for a BA with visual culture, anthropology and history of art as mayors. Then I did a PGD in Arts and Cultural Management.

One apon thyme . . .

. . . a girl moved into a house without a garden. And a house is not a home, but one way to make a house a home, is to start herb gardening. She went to the farmers market and bought thyme seedlings.

Thyme is a herb with culinary, medicinal and ornamental uses. Thyme is of the genus Thymus.

Ancient Egyptians used thyme for embalming.

The ancient Greeks used it in their baths and burnt it as incense in their temples.

The Romans used it to purify their rooms and to "give an aromatic flavour to cheese and liqueurs".

In the European Middle Ages, the herb was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares. Thyme was also used as incense and placed on coffins during funerals, as it was supposed to assure passage into the next life.

Thyme is best cultivated in a hot, sunny location with well-drained soil. Although it is generally planted in the spring, but the girl planted it in winter. And although it can take deep freezes, she put it in-house in a sunny spot.

Thyme is a common component of the bouquet garni (a bundle of herbs tied together with string and mainly used to prepare soup, stock, and various stews) and of herbes de Provence ( a mixture of dried herbs typical of Provence, including savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, oregano and, sometimes lavender.

 

But the girl invited the thyme into the house because of its  aroma and attracted appearance.  And she uses it in salads . . .
2 tbsp pine nuts
a hand-full of mixed salad leaves
1/2 cup prepared beetroot, in wedges
1 small avocado, in slices
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 cup goat cheese with rind, chilled
 

Sometimes she removed the leaves from stems either by scraping with the back of a knife, or by pulling through the tines of a fork, but more often she just use the leaves on the stem.

Office D139

Working in my Bloemfontein office with the Free State winter outside, reminds me of my Kobenhavn office and my colleagues who shared Office D139 with me. I really miss my friends and Europe's central heating systems.

A view from Office D139: Part of the courtyard of the Emdrupborg satellite campus.

秀妍 许 or Xiuyan Xu from Beijing China (left) and Katrine Scott from Lund University in Sweden at one of various lunch areas in the modern D-building on the Emdrup-campus of the Aarhus University.

 

 

Anniina Leiviskä from Helsinki University in Finland is the only inhabitant of Office D139 that does not study the Higher Education field. Anniina is a Philosophical doctorandus.

 

 

Hari Maya Sharma of the Gorkha Campus in Nepal
is just as busy and productive as Maya the Bee!