A Year in Pictures – Paired Horses

This work by http://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

I stood for bloody ever at the railing above this sunken area, waiting for a gap in which to photograph this pair without somebody else in the picture. (In fact, I didn’t quite succeed; fortunately, the person who started walking into frame as I took the photo could easily be cropped out.) I loved the foreground/background juxtaposition — even if horse-head sculptures always do make me think of the Mafia . . . .

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Under the Mango Tree

I’m slightly torn about posting this only because of Amazon’s recent bad behavior — if I could point you at a different retailer, I would. But this is a good cause in its own right, and I don’t want people to be reluctant to support it just because of Amazon.

Under the Mango Tree is a collection of folktales from Sierra Leone, assembled by a Peace Corps volunteer in the country. All profits from the book go to the students who wrote it, and to a scholarship fund for their education. Given the economic differences between the U.S. and Sierra Leone, roughly three book sales is enough to pay for a year of education for one child, meaning that every copy sold is rather more than just a drop in the bucket.

I’ve picked up a copy myself; in fact, I installed the Kindle app on my tablet just so I could do so. I haven’t read it yet, but will certainly report in once that’s done.

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.