Beauty – Page 5 – Jadi Campbell

James Francis Durante + His Snozz

I seem to be writing a lot about birds these days. This birthday boy fits the bill!

James Francis Durante was born on February 10, 1893 in Manhattan. This singer, comedian, actor and musician (piano) personified the world of the arts from vaudeville to Hollywood. From my grandparents’ to my generation, Jimmy’s accent, laugh, and gravelly voice graced our lives.

Oh! and his snozz…. In his honor I am reprinting the post in which I featured that famous nose. – Jadi

I give you Installment #32 of my blog thread describing what to call groups of animals! … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.

The durante MUST be named for Durante.
A raffle is perfect for a Thanksgiving raffle.
Have you ever heard a drumming drumming?
An orchestra plays their orchestra on summer evenings.
A trip seldom trips.
I’d love to see an aurora during an aurora.

Long Beaked Bird on Brown Wood Near Forest

Durante of toucans [1]
Raffle of turkeys
Drumming of grouse [2]
Orchestra of crickets
Trip of goats
Aurora of polar bears [3]

In memory of Jimmy Durante, February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980

NOTES: [1] I had to check that this one was real because I instantly thought of Jimmy Durante and his famous schnozz with this definition for the big-beaked toucan… [2] Drumming comes from the birds’ mating call, generated with the wings [3] Could the name be any more wonderfully appropriate for an animal that lives at the North Pole?!

NOTES:©Jadi Campbell 2024. Previously published as The Animal Kingdom: 32. Durante member photo courtesy of Pexels. Goat photo ©Uwe Hartmann. To see Uwe’s animal photos and pics from our trips go to viewpics.de. Fun animal names from en.wiktionary.org, www.writers-free-reference.com, Mother Nature Network and www.reference.com.

My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, and The Trail Back Out.

Tsunami Cowboys was longlisted for the 2019 ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Award. Broken In: A Novel in Stories was semifinalist for the international 2020 Hawk Mountain Short Story Collection Award from Hidden River Arts and Finalist for Greece’s 2021 Eyelands Book of the Year Award (Short Stories). The Trail Back Out was the 2023 San Francisco Book Festival Winner for General Fiction, American Book Fest 2020 Best Book Award Finalist: Fiction Anthologies, Runner-Up for the 2021 Top Shelf Award, 2021 IAN Book of the Year Award Short Story Collection Finalist, and awarded a 2021 Wishing Shelf Red Ribbon. The title story The Trail Back Out was longlisted for the 2021 ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Award.

Click here for my author page to learn more about me and purchase my books.

ZZZZZZZEBRAS!

I’m in LOVE with zebras.

It was love at first sight. When Uwe and I were in southern Africa I sent my sisters ‘Zebra of the Day’ snapshots.

We saw hundreds of them in herds, and by the time our trip was over we’d spotted thousands.

We saw zebras in national parks in Namibia and Botswana. I was in ecstasy every day we were forced to stop to let them cross the roads.

We spotted them in the Okavango Delta from above in a helicopter.

Bathroom breaks were a gas station if we passed one. Most of the time it was just pulling over to the side of a remote road…. I took a memorable pee not 5 meters away from 60 zebras. They watched warily from behind the brush, but didn’t move away. I could hear them whickering to one another about me.

Funnily enough, (cue eerie music here), last autumn I’d decided that my next book is going to feature zebras. It’s still in the planning and thinking-about stages so I won’t say anymore than that. But to start the creative process I bought a zebra magnet at the British Library in London. I’m looking at it as I write this post: it’s attached to a stereo speaker.

I have a key chain I bought at a gas station in Namibia from the artist who was going from car to car. He carves them from soapstone and I kept turning him down until I saw the one that featured 3 zebras.

Botswana basket to the far right is Ribs of the Zebra pattern

I also brought home a basket with the traditional ribs of the zebra pattern in Maun, Botswana. *

Zebras are sociable, and intelligent, and cannot be tamed. Each zebra’s stripes are as distinctly unique as finger prints.

ZZZZZZZEBRAS!!! I shouted with glee each time we saw one.

NOTES: * In a future post I have more to say about the fine art of basket weaving in southern Africa! ©2024 Jadi Campbell. Photos ©2023 Uwe Hartmann. Uwe’s photos of our trips and his photography may be viewed at viewpics.de.

My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded and The Trail Back Out.

The Trail Back Out was the 2023 San Francisco Book Festival Winner for General Fiction, American Book Fest 2020 Best Book Award Finalist: Fiction Anthologies, Runner-Up for the 2021 Top Shelf Award, 2021 IAN Book of the Year Award Short Story Collection Finalist, and awarded a 2021 Wishing Shelf Red Ribbon. The title story The Trail Back Out was longlisted for the 2021 ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Award.

Click here for my author page to learn more about me and purchase my books.

Wild Birds of Africa

“Tame birds sing of freedom. Wild birds fly.” — John Lennon

When you think of watching wild life in Africa, everyone talks about the Big Five. And yes, we spotted elephants, water buffalo, lions, and giraffes, everything except the leopard (which for all kinds of funny reasons makes me really happy. It means we have to go back!)

The birds in southern Africa are amazing too. We saw an array of bird life so varied and exotic that halfway through our trip we bought a book on Birds of Southern Africa. It would have been too annoying to get home again and have no way of identifying them without having to spend days on the Internet trying to find them.

African hoopoe, Etosha National Park, Namibia

At our last lodge in Namibia, Uwe and I both spent hours sitting on the little balcony to our room. We were watching the weaver birds making new nests and feeding their broods only a few meters away from where we sat.

Along the Caprivi Strip hundreds of bee eaters live on the river banks.

Southern carmine bee eaters in the Caprivi Strip

The bee eaters colonies will wash away when the rains come and the Kavango River rises.

In Chobe National Park in Botswana, we saw herons, eagles, storks, and shore birds beyond counting. We did an early morning boat cruise and literally had the river delta and the rich wildlife to ourselves.

African jacana (aka ‘Jesus birds’). They use their long toes to cross via plants and lily pads on the Chobe River

African skimmer. Lower bill is longer and used to skim the river for fish

We saw marabou storks who happily scavenge carcasses.

We smelled the dead buffalo before we spotted it. Then, like a comedy routine, the stork’s head popped up from where he was feeding on the other side of the water buffalo carcass.

More birds to follow. In my next post I’ll give you Uwe’s photographs of birds interacting with other animals.

My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded and The Trail Back Out.

Click here for my author page to learn more about me and purchase my books.

The Song of Hippos

We spent a week in November traveling across the Caprivi Strip in northern Namibia. It’s this funny skinny strip of land with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the south, Zimbabwe to the east, and a landscape that shifts from the Namib Desert to the Okavango Delta.

It’s one of the greatest places I’ve ever visited.

Our lodging consisted of tents on the Kavango River. These were larger and more comfortable than you’d think. The lodges are off the grid, with electricity powered by solar energy collectors. The first tent had a fan and the second one didn’t. The tents always included mosquito netting over the beds.

The river bank was a few meters away, and I gazed across it to Bwatbwata National Park.

By far the best pieces of scenery were the hippos that live in exactly this stretch of the river.

That’s Bwabwata National Park on the other bank

I was astonished to learn this fact: Hippos can’t swim. Apparently they can hold their breaths under water for up to five minutes. Mostly they stand around in groups called pods or bloats (really!) almost completely submerged. They socialize in water up to their eyes and ears to keep cooled off until it’s time to go up on land and find something to eat.

Hippos talk simultaneously both above and below the water. I found them to be surprisingly chatty. When hippos communicate with honks, the sounds really carries.* They also talk with grunts and bellows and wheezes.

Each night I fell asleep to the voices of hippos snuffling in what sounded like quiet contentment. I slept more deeply there than anywhere else on our trip.

NOTES: * A hippo’s honk can be heard a mile away. Science Direct: Amphibious communication. The San Diego Zoo has a great article on hippopotomuses: https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/hippo ©2023 Jadi Campbell. Photos ©2023 Uwe Hartmann. Uwe’s photography and his photos of our trips can be viewed at viewpics.de.

My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded and The Trail Back Out.

Click here for my author page to learn more about me and purchase my books.

Perspective is Everything

Funny how sometimes you need to zoom in close to get the big picture. Victoria Falls may not be the world’s highest or wildest waterfall, but it’s the largest. The waterfalls are a UNESCO World Heritage site, too, and we always go out of our way to try and see anything on the world heritage list.

We booked a day trip from Botswana over to Victoria Falls so someone else would do the driving and deliver us to the right border offices to get our day visas. (We had a border permit for our rental car for Namibia over into Botswana, but not for Zimbabwe.) The Botswanan driver parked the van at the border, walked us to where his Zimbabwe colleague was waiting, and handed us off to him.

Victoria Falls wasn’t at full force when we visited but we still got soaking wet from the mists blowing over from the other side. We were happy to be wet as it was over 100 degrees that day.

Our visit coincided with the dry time of year, and I admit : I was a little disappointed the falls weren’t bigger. But I wandered around anyway, admiring the site.

Uwe’s responsible for the photos when we’re traveling. He creates the best images possible, while I just take snapshots with my cell phone. Uwe was enthralled, and busy finding the right angles for his camera. I enjoyed watching him at work (at play) and snapped a couple pics of my hubby doing his thing….

And then, when I looked in the viewfinder hoping I’d managed to get a few shots that didn’t include my thumb in the upper left hand corner, there was the breathtaking sweep and scope of Victoria Falls, dry season or wet season or any season. Even the fuzziness in my photo is supposed to be there – that’s the mists blowing up from Victoria Falls. Maybe the best photo I’ve ever taken with my phone!

Perspective really is everything.

My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded and The Trail Back Out.

Tsunami Cowboys was longlisted for the 2019 ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Award. The Trail Back Out was the 2023 San Francisco Book Festival Winner for General Fiction, American Book Fest 2020 Best Book Award Finalist: Fiction Anthologies, Runner-Up for the 2021 Top Shelf Award, 2021 IAN Book of the Year Award Short Story Collection Finalist, and awarded a 2021 Wishing Shelf Red Ribbon. The title story The Trail Back Out was longlisted for the 2021 ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Award.

Broken In: A Novel in Stories was semifinalist for the 2020 Hawk Mountain Short Story Collection Award from Hidden River Arts and Finalist for Greece’s 2021 Eyelands Book of the Year Award (Short Stories).

Click here for my author page to learn more about me and purchase my books.

Today’s Birthday: Catherine-Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle

Artist Niki de Saint Phalle was born on October 29, 1930 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Her huge sculptures decorate museums and public spaces around the globe. I first met her work in the Fontaine des automates, the Stravinsky Fountain outside the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and recognize her pieces immediately when I encounter them. Saint Phalle collaborated on the creation of the fountain with her husband Jean Tinguely. Her figures aren’t the usual idealized depictions of the female body, and she often addressed current issues. She worked with artists in other mediums as well. Her health was damaged by the materials she used to create her artwork.

She had no formal training but became one of the world’s most important feminist artists. I read that her style is called idiosyncratic ‘outsider art’.

I would simply say, genius. In her honor here’s a post I wrote about a family of artists creating wildly creative work. The Ferros were my dad’s neighbors. – Jadi

My father lived on a very cool street. He had a little place on a small lake. When I visited, I’d spend hours watching critters on and in the water. And then I took a stroll down the road, because Dad had artist neighbors. The Ferros’ artwork decorates the street.

Their home is chock full of art, almost all of it made by Tino and Carole. When Carole kindly gave me a tour of the house, I couldn’t stop taking photographs. Every single inch of space contained something interesting and wildly creative.

Carole and Tino. Check out the cicada! The glass lamp! That railing!

The 1920’s home originally belonged to Tino’s parents.

They added on, sourcing materials from old buildings in the area that were being torn down. These ceiling beams came from a church.

They run a gallery, just a few miles away.

Sculptures adorn the outside lawns; here is only a sample.

Two of the couple’s offspring joined them to create the gallery. Ninety percent of the materials they use are recycled or pre-used. The Ferro family also produces smaller pieces, glass work, and paintings. Click on the thumbnail photos for a closer look.

I loved the female figures made of recycled metal strips from factory punches and stamps.

Tino and Carole worked and raised their family in Portugal from 1988-2008. Tino tells me Europeans still collect their art work.

The Ferros run a second gallery in North Carolina. I can only imagine what’s in that one. But I’m sure those neighbors love having Tino and Carole down the street!

Contact info: Frog Pond Studio (South), Metal Scuptures, Furniture: 58 Prairie Lane, St. Pauls, NC 28384. tel: 910 865 4998. cell 910 740 3749. email: cferro2598@aol.com

Frog Pond Farm Folk Art Gallery (North), 5969 Rt. 281, Little York, NY 13087. tel: 607 749 6056

In memory of Niki de Saint Phalle, 29 October 1930 – 21 May 2002

My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded and The Trail Back Out.

Click here for my author page to learn more about me and purchase my books.

Story collection featuring Cranberry Lake wins award

I was interviewed recently by Adam Atkinson at North Country Now. He wrote a beautiful article. Click on the link to read about one of the most remote and serene places I’ve ever spent time in.

Source: Story collection featuring Cranberry Lake wins award

The last post of South African meals

This is my last post of South African meals, because I’ve run out of photos…. If this subject thread hasn’t made you want to climb on a plane and head to restaurants in South Africa, you either eat at McDonald’s on a regular basis or had your taste buds excised.

carpaccio 3 ways: kudu, crocodile and beef

even the bread is freshly made and lovingly presented

master architects put these meals together

It was a wonder we didn’t lick our plates after every meal

I remember the speckled item as an indescribably delicious puree of vegetable infused with seeds

For everyone else, the cooking in South Africa is beyond delicious! Uwe and I are still raving about the meals we ate every single night we were there!

My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, and The Trail Back Out.

Click here for my author page to learn more about me and purchase my books.

Because Food this Good needs to be Admired before it gets Eaten

Ah yes, more photos of our meals in South Africa last November.

all details edible and perfectly aligned

even the tiniest feathery bits are precisely placed

“I intend that my last work shall be a cookbook composed of memories and desires.” ~ Alexander Dumas *

They all tasted as great as they look. Sigh.

NOTES: ©2023 Jadi Campbell. All photos ©Uwe Hartmann. More photos of our trip to South Africa and Uwe’s photography may be viewed at viewpics.de. *Life Is Meals: A Food Lover’s Book of Days by James and Kay Salter

My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, and The Trail Back Out.

Click here for my author page to learn more about me and purchase my books.

Like I keep saying: Food in South Africa is Good. Died and gone to Heaven Good

I wasn’t kidding. Here are more photos to prove my point. As the Japanese say: “The eyes eat too.” This idea of beautiful food presentation is known as moritsuke.

No words needed!

And I’ve got more pictures where these came from … hungry yet?

Each bite a fusion of luscious yumminess. No other way to describe it even comes close

My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, and The Trail Back Out.

Tsunami Cowboys was longlisted for the 2019 ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Award. Broken In: A Novel in Stories was semifinalist for the international 2020 Hawk Mountain Short Story Collection Award from Hidden River Arts and Finalist for Greece’s 2021 Eyelands Book of the Year Award (Short Stories). The Trail Back Out was American Book Fest 2020 Best Book Award Finalist: Fiction Anthologies, Runner-Up for the 2021 Top Shelf Award, 2021 IAN Book of the Year Award Short Story Collection Finalist, and awarded a 2021 Wishing Shelf Red Ribbon. The title story The Trail Back Out was longlisted for the 2021 ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Award.

Click here for my author page to learn more about me and purchase my books.

Category: Beauty

James Francis Durante + His Snozz

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ZZZZZZZEBRAS!

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Wild Birds of Africa

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The Song of Hippos

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Perspective is Everything

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Today’s Birthday: Catherine-Marie-Agnès Fal de Saint Phalle

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Story collection featuring Cranberry Lake wins award

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The last post of South African meals

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Because Food this Good needs to be Admired before it gets Eaten

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Like I keep saying: Food in South Africa is Good. Died and gone to Heaven Good

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