Hello Gerald; now I become a little curious about where you do come from, my best guess is from UK. It does facinate me, that you are a landscape architect, a man with a sense of views, do you know the danish
landscape architect Carl Th Soerensen (1893 -1979) he was called a "Landscape Modernist", and there is a book with that title written by Sven-Ingvar Andersson, Steen Høyer. I will look for one of your books, maybe the one about Sintra, - I did not reach it this time in Lisbon, but I surely will try once. Ulla

skrevet af SengaDew kl. 4:10 pm (EST) den Jul 7, 2008

Thanks Gerald for your interest, - the picture of the pale yellow flower is unknown for me too, and because I am an educated agronomist with botany as one of "my fields", the picture fascinate me - it leaves an "open mind" for the beauty of life; the photographer named the picture "morningdew" an it was in an article from a journey to " Ile de la Réunion " near Madagascar (you can se the picture in this http://viden.jp.dk/videnbank/soeg/defaul... and activate the line "Se billedserie". It is nice to hear from a "potuguese", I have been to Lisbon three months ago and it was wonderful. Best wishes from SengaDew alias Ulla

skrevet af SengaDew kl. 4:19 am (EST) den Jul 6, 2008

Hi Gerald, thanks for bookmarking my library.

All my gardening books have not yet reached LT, as they are big editions and buried in deep piles. I need a library room - perhaps my daughter's as she is 17 and ready to leave for University soon!!!

Is that your library? - it looks fabulous!

Cheers, Karen

skrevet af kiwidoc kl. 11:09 am (EST) den Apr 22, 2008

Hi Gerald! Yes, I only have one book for now -- BUT it's the book I authored called "The Art of War -- Spirituality for Conflict." Check it out. In fact, I'm currently the newest author on LT. As you might expect, I do have countless books in my library and they are all calling me to plug them in here. Want to help me? :-) Sincerely, Thomas

skrevet af sonshi kl. 12:07 am (EST) den Apr 22, 2008

Hallo botanica, Indeed, I think it is those wee penguins that we have in common. Although I was amused to see a two other interesting connections - My family is from Portugal, from Madeira, but the only place I have visited is Lisbon. And the reason it took me so long to look at your message is that I was working on an annotated bibliography of reference material on gardening - I should have looked at your library for help!

Cheers,
Francesca

skrevet af francescadefreitas kl. 11:14 pm (EST) den Apr 17, 2008

Thank you, although I envy your bookshelves. Porto Santo may be small, but I have visited there as a day trip from a wonderful visit to Madeira's gardens.

skrevet af antisyzygy kl. 12:30 pm (EST) den Feb 5, 2008

Happy Christmas Gerald! And all the best for the new year. -- Hugh

skrevet af hfglen kl. 9:16 am (EST) den Dec 25, 2007

Hi,
another book on the Mughals: The Mughal Gardens by Ferozsons (Pvt) Limited, Lahore. sorry forgot the author but it is a recent book - I would say this year.

Rabia

skrevet af rabiazafar78 kl. 11:55 am (EST) den Dec 3, 2007

Hello Botanica,

Apologies for delay. I am now back in Egypt but will return to Turkey next March.There is a book on Ottoman gardens:

Gardens and Flowers in the Ottoman Culture by Nurthan Atusoy.

Hope you find this useful

Best regards

Orientalist

skrevet af orientalist kl. 6:42 am (EST) den Nov 29, 2007

Hi Gerald,

Thanks for dropping by. Sorry it has taken me over two months to reply. You've inspired me - I really need to get the rest of my books on here.

cheers
Helen
(Australia)

skrevet af Platypus kl. 5:17 am (EST) den Nov 6, 2007

Hi Gerald,

Thanks for dropping by. Sorry it has taken me over two months to reply. You've inspired me - I really need to get the rest of my books on here.

cheers
Helen
(Australia)

skrevet af Platypus kl. 5:00 am (EST) den Nov 6, 2007

Hello Botanica. Writing in response to your posting "Just checking through libraries with a lot of "plants" books. Love the idea of a Winter Tree Finder. Is this based on twigs or overall shape of the tree? I always try to recognise trees at a distance by their silhouette."

This is a wonderful little Guide based on the winter silhouette, shape, branches, twigs, buds, etc. along with the range....delightful

skrevet af ghlibrary kl. 12:23 pm (EST) den Nov 3, 2007

Yes Gerald, Botanica is the science but can also mean female botanist... (at least in my portuguese mind) and male botanist would be Botanico, see what I mean? But what's in a name? Gorgeous books!!! :-)*

skrevet af Moranga kl. 8:31 pm (EST) den Oct 8, 2007

Hello!

Gerald? This was a surprise... I pictured you as a woman, Botanica! :-) What a laugh!
My Library is doing well... I don't have a 10th of your books! Again, your books are to die for!

skrevet af Moranga kl. 1:34 pm (EST) den Oct 7, 2007

Hi Gerald, nice to get your message. Most of my library is not yet entered in LibraryThing, so I believe that we share a number of other gardening books as well. The difference in climates does make for a number of difference in gardening books, I agree. I am interested in irises, clematis, daylilies, peonies and trees, among lots of other perennials and bulbs. I need to find some time, perhaps later this fall, to get more of my library added. It was fun looking back over the fence at your gardening collection too. You have a wonderful library. It will be interesting to see how our shared list grows as I add my books. Gary White

skrevet af GardenLit kl. 11:44 pm (EST) den Oct 6, 2007

Good afternoon from Florida, Botanica. The way of responding within LT seems willy nilly at times but here I am. We share a copy of Leaves from Our Tuscan Garden and you commented about the lack of horticultural titles within my list. Well, I just haven't gotten to them yet. But when I get to them, we will no doubt share a few. Have concentrated on my culinary titles first. Thanks for writing. Lynn Nelson

skrevet af kitchengardenbooks kl. 5:25 pm (EST) den Oct 6, 2007

Well Gerald, i

If gardening is your thing, try "Greater Perfection' by Francis Cabot, which is a very pretty gardening book about developimg a garden in Quebec (although the gardening zone is different to yours)

If you like biography - try Boyhood and Youth by Coetzee. I really liked these two.

Cheers, Karen

skrevet af kiwidoc kl. 8:01 pm (EST) den Oct 4, 2007

Dear Gerald,

it took me several days to return to LibraryThing and I apologize for my late reply to your comment.

Thanks for your friendly message. I do love Portugal and I am about to finish my Master's in Portuguese Literature. Besides, I appreciate Literature in English and I am a teacher of English as a Foreign Language here in Brazil. I would love to keep in contact and exchange some ideas about books and this lovely country you live in.

Where are you from, actually?

Best regards from your new Brazilian friend,

Beto
Robertson Frizero Barros
Porto ALegre - Brazil

skrevet af frizero kl. 8:04 am (EST) den Oct 4, 2007

Hi Gerald,
thanks, yes I have a number of collections,postcards included.

U might want to check out the following link: Gardens of the Mughal Empire - mughalgardens.org/detect/getflash.html

Also there is a bibliography for Lahore Mughal Gardens (PDF format): http://mughalgardens.org/PDF/lahore_bibl...

Another book is: Karachi: Pleasure Gardens of a Raj City, Sang-e-Meel Publications, Pakistan, 2007 - www.sang-e-meel.com

The Dual City: Karachi during the Raj by Yasmeen Lari and Mihail S. Lari, Oxford University Press, 2001 - is an interesting background to the city. Also has architectural section - early colonial period to the 20th century (till 1947).

if I think of any more I will let u know.
rabia
Karachi

skrevet af rabiazafar78 kl. 7:13 am (EST) den Oct 4, 2007

Hi Gerald. Thanks for stopping by. I'd say you are a real gardener, as opposed to me - an enthusiastic amateur. I've been learning the hard way in this corner of Spain where the hot African wind blows and sucks all the moisture out of everything during July and August. I've found hotgardens.net and Heidi Gildermeister's "Water Wise" invaluable, learning to bend with the climate, not fight it.

skrevet af Arco-Iris kl. 9:16 am (EST) den Oct 2, 2007

Thanks for the reply, Gerald. I note your book suggestions with interest. I realize that you are an LT author and had a quick look at your books. Wow - definitely a horticulturist. And what a lovely place to live. Where are you transplanted from?

The gardening books I read/used in New Zealand are, of course, completely different to those in British Columbia. Where I live is a virtual rain forest, so the plants grow like crazy but succumb to fungal disease and leaching problems. English garden books work well!

My latest botanical book to read was Anna Pavord and her book about tulips. I like her books as she has some writing flare also.

skrevet af kiwidoc kl. 11:59 am (EST) den Sep 30, 2007

Good to hear from you, Botanica. The truth of it is, I have hundreds of garden books, and have not put them onto LT. I have not catalogued any garde, few cooking and very few home/artitectural books. I have also left out most of the kids books in the house. It would look too much like I had a book acquistion problem (which I do). Would love to hear of your fav garden books - see if I have them!!!

Cheers
Karen

skrevet af kiwidoc kl. 7:37 pm (EST) den Sep 29, 2007

Good to hear from you! In present context, I use the 'ephemera' tag for small things that evidently aren't meant to be kept, like DoE site guides, and so by extension the "guides" with lots of colour and minimal information sold at places like, well, places that sell guides like that.

I was on the committee of the local numismatic society in Johannesburg for years before moving down here, and would collect mediaeval or Roman coins if time and funds permitted -- but one life is far too short to do all the interesting and useful things there are!

What's your e-mail? It's taking forever to post a message like this ...
h

skrevet af hfglen kl. 1:03 pm (EST) den Sep 25, 2007

The Macarthur corrective map is not meant to be humourous. This is how we antipodeans view the world. The antipodes represent the future as imagined by Renaissance writers such as Bacon.

skrevet af Antipodean kl. 7:15 pm (EST) den Sep 24, 2007

The Macarthur corrective map is no joke. This is how we view the world. We are the future. The future is here.

skrevet af Antipodean kl. 7:13 pm (EST) den Sep 24, 2007

I haven't actually read Isolarion yet - although I do have a birthday coming up, so I might see if anyone is casting around for a present to give me... I'm not supposed to be buying any new books at the moment! At least, not for myself - I have just sent a friend of mine Among Flowers by Jamaica Kincaid, resisting the temptation to read it quickly myself before I posted it off - wondering if it's a book you would be interested in as well, given all your books about gardens?

I visited Sintra last year and loved it - lucky you! One of my best holiday memories ever is sitting in the little wine shop/bar up the tiny hilly street, being given plate after plate of fantastic ham, cheese, desserts, and the wine to go with them...

skrevet af wandering_star kl. 6:21 pm (EST) den Sep 23, 2007

You made me laugh. We were in Italy a few years ago and someone asked us how we managed, we don't stay in American hotels when we travel to Europe. I told them I learned how to ask how much it cost, where's the bathroom, Good morning, please and thank you. Since I'm a cook, I already knew the restaurant lingo. Wayne's Spanish and a good translation book took care of the rest. I'm doing Michelle Thomas' CD. It is an easy way to learn. We have decided to spend our money on travels, why should we leave anything to the kids!!??

skrevet af siubhank kl. 5:50 pm (EST) den Sep 22, 2007

Thanks for the tip. Don't have a flicker account. However, computer geek son and wife, also a computer geek, will be down to visit soon, I hope, I miss my grandson, I already know what I want to put in, I'm sure they will fix me up.

My husband learned the Polish at home and at his grandparents, he's second generation Polish-American on both sides. He spent a semester of High School in Madrid for the Spanish. When he got to Notre Dame, he went into advanced Spanish and took French for three semesters, then switched to Portuguese, because a girl he was sweet on was taking it. He went to Texas for his master's and took Portuguese again, no sweetie this time! He then spent eighteen months in Korea with the U.S. Air Force and came home with a working knowledge of Korean, really helped when he took his shirts to a Korean Laundry :-) I've tried for thirty years to teach him "Southern" but he seems to be resistant to that dialect. He is now teaching Spanish and French to grades K through 8. I'm studying French in preparation for our trip to Provence in 2008. he 'helps' but mostly leaves me to my CDs. We do intersperse phrases in our daily conversation.

skrevet af siubhank kl. 1:13 pm (EST) den Sep 22, 2007

Sorry it didn't work out for you. I page through part of my library almost every day (I'm wounded at the moment and can do very little physical activity) I find errors made on manual entries and arbitrary date changes and Orphans. I check on my Orphan tag at least that often, today I found two more that someone entered, so I'm down to 79 now.

Your profile page is wonderful. I can navigate around the internet pretty well, but I can't do pictures like that.

I was in Sintra in June 2005! We loved it. We did the National Palace, all those steps. We're going to go back to Portugal soon. My husband speaks Portuguese (and French, Spanish, Polish and a bit of Korean. We stayed in Lisbon, just up the hill from the Baxia
area. We want to see the southern part next time

skrevet af siubhank kl. 10:51 am (EST) den Sep 22, 2007

Sounds great. I can guess my way through the Portuguese, assisted by a dictionary I haven't added to my catalogue yet. (if you need it, my e-mail address is glen@sanbi.org )

Ever so many thanks
Hugh

skrevet af hfglen kl. 3:43 pm (EST) den Sep 21, 2007

Only too pleased to help -- please don't hesitate to ask next time, whenever you want to.

Date palms: almost certainly yes. If they succumb, there's always Phoenix canariensis -- not as tasty, but people-proof (anything that can survive for decades on the centre reservation of a main road in Johannesburg just has to be TOUGH). Glad Lytton came up trumps -- he's a highly entertaining character, with a taste in puns that makes even me groan. Do please say hello from me if you contact him again.

Will look into Vaneska's library, possibly even adding it to my list of interesting ones as she's about 6th on my list of shared books.

All best
Hugh

skrevet af hfglen kl. 4:22 pm (EST) den Sep 20, 2007

Hello again

In fact, Durban is closer to the equator than Funchal, and so warmer and wetter, but (strangely) with more hours of sunshine. At least, comparing BBC-Weather's account of Funchal with SA Weather Service's account of home. So I guess you have a better chance of succeeding with a bible garden than I have. Prof. Musselman's Bible Plants can be accessed bu asking Google for "Old Dominion University" AND Musselman -- it's then the 3rd reference that comes up.

Thinking on from Mimi Jardim's cookbook, is there one that celebrates the Portuguese ex-colonies at Goa and/or Macau?

All best
Hugh

skrevet af hfglen kl. 3:27 pm (EST) den Sep 19, 2007

A little birdie chirps that they make wine in Madeira and presumably also have vines. Get some ancient strains of wheat (I'd have said from Butser, but I think I read somewhere that the Iron Age farm there has folded) and you have a start. Someone you may wish to enlist is Prof. Lytton Musselman of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA (don't have his address to hand, but if you google Bible Plants or ODU or parasitic plants (!) you'll get his web site, which has reams of what you want). Also, if you can find a book on Bible plants by the Moldenkes, published by Chronica Botanica about 50 years ago, I think you'll find it useful if turgid.

Not only have I seen Ernst van Jaarsveld's book (admittedly, no closer than the unit library) but I know the lad and work for the same organization. He's at Kirstenbosch, and as helpful as the day is long.

All best
Hugh

skrevet af hfglen kl. 6:41 am (EST) den Sep 19, 2007

Argh. So much stuff going on in Sintra and now I'm in the US...I didn't even know Regaleira was used for that kind of events :( Thanks!!

skrevet af claudiadias kl. 1:28 pm (EST) den Sep 18, 2007

PS: Just seen that the one we have in common is the little Penguin offering. I don't think this is nearly as much fun as Mimi J. -- h

skrevet af hfglen kl. 1:12 pm (EST) den Sep 18, 2007

Hello Gerald

Many thanks for adding me to your list of interesting libraries. i shall return the compliment in the next day or 2.

Reynolds' first edition is fairly rare, but I didn't think it was that rare! Maybe South Africans just haven't discovered LT.

Bible Gardens: I think out of those two I'd go for Hepper's 'Planting a Bible Garden', if only because it's a fuller account that the other one. Before I raise your hopes of usefulness too high (and even though I hold Nigel Hepper in high regard), honour bids me point out that Hepper's Bible garden is / was in Richmond, SW London. When I tried to establish a collection of Bible plants in Pretoria years ago, I found both his books less than perfectly useful. And haven't even tried here in Durban -- there are just too many exciting tropical plants here already!

As for Madeira? Sorry, I haven't a clue, never even having come close to visiting there.

BTW: Mimi Jardim's book is a gem, with lots of yummy Mozambican-Portuguese recipes that I remember seeing in LM when I was a kid. She has some Angolan recipes that look a bit rougher, but also well worth trying.

All best
Hugh

skrevet af hfglen kl. 1:04 pm (EST) den Sep 18, 2007

Hello Gerald,
Yes, our libraries seem to overlap quite a bit, and are about the same size! Your photo even looks a lot like my library here in Compiègne. I have a house in Gozo, Malta, where I do my gardening. I have had it about 30 years and have big eucalyptus and palms grown from seed. The problem there is the salt wind from the sea, and the poor soil. I now have a gardener and as I am 80 do less work now! I must look further at your catalogue. I like the botanical garden in Palermo a lot, and I contributed some plants to the one in Naples which was ravaged during the war. Also the botanical garden in Tenerife..lots of good things.
Regards David

skrevet af poliphilus kl. 5:33 am (EST) den Sep 18, 2007

Hi again,

That "Beautiful Plants of the Seychelles" book is dreadful - not worth buying even cheap, definitely not for $178!!

skrevet af hongkong9 kl. 10:39 am (EST) den Sep 16, 2007

Hi botanica,

You asked about the government booklets on Hong Kong trees - yes, I have them, but I keep them in my office at work (I'm a professional botanist), and I decided to keep my librarything account just for my "home library". I love the look of your library, by the way!

skrevet af hongkong9 kl. 9:07 am (EST) den Sep 15, 2007

Greetings Gerald!
Well, now you've got me beat by five books! I wish I had all your terrific titles on gardens & Portuguese. I've got some collection building to do in those areas. Great library photos - looks a bit like my place!
Ciao,
Jim

skrevet af walshga kl. 11:50 pm (EST) den Sep 12, 2007

Hello there

Set books from compulsion; cookery and travel from choice! Only a few Russian words have stuck, I'm afraid

skrevet af iannmag kl. 12:09 pm (EST) den Sep 10, 2007

Hello Gerald.

Yes, indeed – “Hops and Hop Picking” certainly brings back memories, even for those of us born just over the border in Silly Sussex. At least the oast-houses survive, even if they’re not used for drying hops any more.

Regards,
Tom

skrevet af TabbyTom kl. 7:48 am (EST) den Sep 10, 2007

I thought Cod was a little more interesting story than Salt, but both are Kurlansky's usual thorough job. A more obscure book about salt that I liked is The Great Hedge of India by Roy Moxham. It's a very readable memoir and history about the British trying to control the salt trade within India, so that it could be taxed.

skrevet af Larxol kl. 9:20 am (EST) den Sep 9, 2007

Thanks for the comment. Sorry about the late response - I've just been overseas for a month.

I've actually been to your part of the world too, incuding the Monserrate garden and the Sintra Palace (back in 1996).

I'm no botanist but the tree in my photo's probably a pohutukawa Metrosideros excelsa (sometimes called 'The New Zealand Christmas tree' because it has bright red flowers at that time of the year).

Nice to hear from you.

Cheers

Grant

skrevet af europhile kl. 8:07 am (EST) den Sep 8, 2007