Hippos, Tea and Marshmallows [Daily Photo #1023-1027]

#1023, 18.01.19: Senegalese wood carving!

Such a cute little hippo! ^u^

My June Pride Reading

My super-belated June reading is introduced to you by Furiosa! All the books I chose for June had LGBTQ characters. This time year I tried to feature more countries. (You can also check my Pride readings from 2014, 2015 and 2016.)

The reviews contain some spoilers, though I try not to spoil plot twists too much (with the exception of the book that angered me).

Books:

• Meredith Russo “If I Was Your Girl” [USA]
• Chinelo Okparanta “Under the Udala Trees” [Nigeria, USA]
• Tittamari Marttinen “Ikioma perheeni” [Finland]
• Julia Ember “The Seafarer's Kiss” [USA, UK]
• Salla Simukka “Musta kuin eebenpuu” (Lumikki Andersson #3) [Finland]

A Very Metal Oryx [Daily Photo #305]

Today I got a new Schleich animal for my collection! It's an oryx (gemsbok), an antelope from the arid regions of southern Africa.

My November Reading: Unicorns, Africa and Manhwa

My November books are introduced to you by Magnet Mouse!

• Julia Ember “Unicorn Tracks” [USA/UK]
• “10 Years of the Caine Prize for African Writing” [Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt/Sudan/UK, Uganda, Zimbabwe/UK]
• Ji-Un Yun “Cynical Orange” vol.1-3 [South Korea]
• Rebecca Ascher-Walsh “Devoted: 38 Extraordinary Tales of Love, Loyalty, and Life With Dogs” [USA]
• Anni Nupponen “Putoavan tähden prinsessa” [Finland]
• Marissa Meyer “Scarlet” (The Lunar Chronicles #2) [USA]

April reading: South Africa, birds and Japan

My April reading is introduced to you by The Bookend Horses. I read a few South African books because a certain person made me curious about that land. And reading the world is fun!

There will be LOTS of photos in this post. :)

• Suzanne van Rooyen “Obscura Burning” [South Africa] 
• Niki Daly “The Herd Boy” [South Africa] 
• Vuoden lintukuvat [Finland] 
• Deon Meyer “Devil's Peak” [South Africa] 
• Lauren Beukes “Zoo City” [South Africa]
• Aya Kanno “Otomen” ( オトメン / 乙男) vol. 1-5 [Japan] 

Obscura Burning

February reading: oceans, Pluto and cute baby bats

Quite a delicious list of everything I've read in February introduced to you by the Spotted Dragon!

武内 直子 『美少女戦士セーラームーン』 vol. 5 (Naoko Takeuchi “Sailor Moon” vol. 5) [Japan] 

Wu Ming-Yi “The Man with the Compound Eyes” [Taiwan] 

Issui Ogawa “The Lord of the Sands of Time” [Japan] 

Jeff VanderMeer “Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction” [USA] 

武内 直子 『美少女戦士セーラームーン』 vol. 6 (Naoko Takeuchi “Sailor Moon” vol. 6) [Japan] 

Nnedi Okorafor “Lagoon” [USA]

Wonderbook

At first I got this book from the library, but soon I bought my own copy. Wonderbook is a cool illustrated guide for the writers of speculative fiction. Really fun quirky drawings there!

Senegalese Wood Carving

An exhibition of Senegalese wood carvings in the Sello library in Espoo.

The wood used here is teak.

Angry chips, cuddly friends and not a penguin

Since there wasn't enough food in my previous post, here are a few more delicious things and something else!

Angry Birds are now chips!

Angry side eye.

Easter chocolate egg, kinda.

2014 Africa Reading Challenge

Last year I decided that reading books from the same countries over and over again is boring. I want to know more about this planet and people that live here. And books are always my favourite way to learn. Plus, they are fun! 

2014 was the year I started reading African literature. I'm embarrassed to say this - after all, I've always been a bookworm reading almost anything that came my way - but somehow there never were any books by local African authors. I did read many stories about African nature written by Western travellers and scientists, like Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey (set in Rwanda) and Born Free by Joy Adamson (set in Kenya). Yet I didn't even know any names of African writers!

Look at all this book goodness

Library harvest time! Guess who is happy now? ;-)

Hamsteripäiväkirjat 4

by Nekota Medetai

Hamsters! God I love this manga about the cutest (and silliest) balls of fur who eat too much and frolic adorably.

Books and Rooibos. Again

Yaaaay, my new sweet books arrived! Look how pretty they are!

• Octavia E. Butler “Seed to Harvest” (science fiction)
• N.K. Jemisin “The Shadowed Sun” (fantasy)
• Audrey Niffenegger “The Time Traveler's Wife” (science fiction romance)
• Ann Leckie “Ancillary Justice” (science fiction)

Gundi (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ

Wikipedia says that gundis “are a group of small, stocky rodents found in Africa. They live in rocky deserts across the northern parts of the continent.” What it doesn't say is that gundis are incredibly adorable balls of fur with the cutest tiny tails possible! ^.^

Fan Art Time: Rurousha The Cat

It is dangerous to visit Rurousha's blog late at night. You get sucked into it, write comments, read more, write more, and then it's 8am and you should be sleeping, but wait, here is more sakura! Ume! Penguins! There was something I wanted to do but kept postponing, and the last night/morning visit to Rurousha's space finally kicked my lazy bum, and lo and behold, I made it! The Rurousha fan art!

Please welcome the Barbarian Cat (of course it's a cat) who stalks trees, hisses at slowly moving obaasans and eats chocolate instead of mice. She loves yoghurt too.

流浪者猫

Rooibos and books. Ройбос и книги

Nom nom nom, I bought lots of yummy tea! ^.^

Ням-ням-ням, я купила много вкусного чайку! :)

Green tea and rooibos from Lidl.

Зелёный чай и ройбос из Лидла.

Finland + Sweden + South Africa = ?

  Music doesn't recognize borders between countries. You meet someone from afar and then you find out that you listen to the same songs. My friend Agnia from Uzbekistan loves a British band Placebo, and so do I. Rita from Latvia and I are both crazy about Finnish metal. With Rurousha, South African living in Tokyo, we share passion to the Princess Mononoke soundtrack. Songs are the place where all languages become one – the language of music. And musicians from different corners of the world often unite to create something beautiful.

 Музыка не признаёт границ между странами. Встречаешь человека издалека, а оказывается, что вам нравится одни и те же песни. На пару с Агнией из Узбекистана мы балдеем от британцев Placebo, Рита из Латвии, как я, обожает финский металл, а Rurousha, живующая в Токио уроженка ЮАР, разделяет со мной страсть к саундтреку «Принцессы Мононоке». Музыка — то место, где все языки сливаются в один — язык музыки. И музыканты из разных уголков планеты часто объединяются, чтобы создать что-то красивое.

Today I discovered this ethereal project...

Сегодня я открыла для себя эту неземную группу...

Tastes of Africa. Вкусы Африки

  As a part of our interesting year, we had a week of African cuisine. We chose a few simple, not too exotic recipes. I think there are quite many interesting meals in Africa, and its cuisine should be more popular. Why only eat in Chinese and Indian restaurants? ;)

  Частью нашего интересного года стала неделя африканской кухни. Мы выбрали несколько простых, не слишком экзотических рецептов. На мой взгляд, в Африке очень много интересных блюд, и её кухня заслуживает большей известности. Не питаться же постоянно только китайскими да индийскими блюдами? ;)

  All recipes I found online, so I'll share the links with you. Every meal was yummy and easy to make. Enjoy!

  Все рецепты я нашла в Интернете, вот вам ссылки. Если английским не владеете, то воспользуйтесь Google Translate для перевода — тексты там несложные. Все блюда оказались вкусными и лёгкими в приготовлении. Приятного аппетита!

Mombasa coffee, Kenya.

Mchicha from Tanzania with mashed potatoes. I also added beans.

Мчича из Танзании с картофельным пюре. Ещё я фасольки добавила.

Pirozhok travels. Путешествия Пирожка

Pirozhok, my plush raccoon, wanted to share his adventures with you. He travels a lot, and below are some of his trips.

Мой плюшевый енот Пирожок захотел поделиться своими приключениями. Он много путешествует, так что вот его поездки.

First he went to Russia.

Сначала он съездил в Россию.

Then he travelled to Japan.

Затем была поездка в Японию.

Pirozhok visited Latvia...

Пирожок посетил Латвию...

… and Space.

… и Космос.

Lair Recommends – 6. Nature

Рекомендации из Логова: Природа

Сегодня балую всех любителей природы :)
Here is a treat for those who love nature :)

Фотки. Photos
Спящие животные. Sleeping animals
Детёныши ленивца. Baby sloths
Мамы-животные. Animal mums
Шикарные фотки. Gorgeous photos
Ну очень милое создание :) Super adorable creature ^^

Блоги о природе. Blogs about nature
Garden delights (Australia)
Hedgeland Tales (United Kingdom)
JrandSue (United Kingdom)
Me, Boomer and The Vermilon River (Canada)
SAFFAscapes (South Africa)
Sellberg Nature Photo (Scandinavia)
Vaahteranlehtiä (Finland)

International

  This Russian girl brewed some South African rooibos blend (made by a Finnish company) in her Japanese pot. She poured it into her glass that she got in Moscow. This world is an interesting place :).

  

  Эта русская девушка заварила себе немного южноафриканского ройбоса (финской расфасовки) в своём японском чайнике. Она налила чай в стакан, купленный в Москве. Мы живём в интересном мире :).

♪ 11 песен на 10 языках ♪

Я уже выкладывала 10 песен на 10 языках здесь. Мы послушали китайский, галльский, французский, тамашек, финский, японский, русский, монгольский, кечуа и эльфийский языки. Сегодня — следующая партия :).

I already shared 10 songs in 10 languages with you here. There were Chinese, Gaulish, French, Tuareg, Finnish, Japanese, Russian, Mongolian, Quechua and Elvish there. Today will be some more ^.^

Турецкий язык, песня группы Niyaz

Turkish language, a song by Niyaz

Молдавский — Moldavian, by Sofia Rotaru

Английский — English, by Solomon Burke

Гавайский язык — Hawaiian