Archive for December 2021
Eighteen Years on the Inside
The rains have failed. A burning sun has set over 2021 and the Kasungu – Lilongwe plain. The heat torturous. Diversion must be sought where it may. I note this, by David Warren of Toronto, founding editor of The Idler, on the eighteenth anniversary of his reception into the Church. Mine is also eighteen…
Read MoreChristmas Day
For Christmas Day… White egrets perch atop the papyrus at Kamuzu Academy’s ornamental lake. They are the harbingers of rain. White lilies spread over the waters of the lake. Cyperus papyrus
Read MoreRains at Advent
There fell today the first heavy rains: later than last year, so all the more welcome. November is an exercise in endurance: a succession of days that seem always the same under a burning sky, when that part of Malawi which is not European has the good sense to attempt as little of purposeful activity…
Read MoreThe Immaculate Conception
For the Immaculate Conception… Two bead trees (Adenanthera pavonina, also called false red sandlewood) flank the entrance to Kamuzu Academy’s library. They are native to India. It is alleged that their seeds were used once to weight gold: 30 seeds = 11.5 grammes. A. pavonina
Read More… and Two Others
‘I’m not sure how many readers know the name of Anthony Smith’, asks Douglas Murray of the former President of Magdalen College, Oxford, in today’s edition of The Spectator. ‘But while not every reader will know him, you are lucky if you know the type: that rare person whose passion is helping other people —…
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