kettle

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Beautiful!

This has always been one of my favorite sets by you (the first one I saw of you as well) and am so glad it will be SOTD, as I always thought it should have been!

Holy crap, congrats on the long overdue SOTD! I didn't know a set that was a year old even stood a chance of making, this gives me hope for some of the other sets I've see that should make it. I'll have to start re-sharing some of my old favorites. Thanks for sharing.

Stunning ❤

If you are not familiar with the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series, briefly the books are set in Botswana where Alexander taught at the university there. The main character is Precious Ramotswe (known as Mma Ramotswe throughout the books). When her beloved father Obed passes away she sells some of the cattle she inherited to start the first and only female led detective agency in Botswana. | Each book usually ends with a passage where Mma Ramotswe is reflecting on life and all the things she is most grateful for. This passage comes from the end of the third book where she and her future husband Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni have climbed a small hill overlooking the village she grew up in and are looking down on the town together. | The climb did not take long, and soon they were standing on a large expanse of elevated rock, looking down on Mochudi: on the church, with its red tin roof, on the tiny hospital, where the heroic daily battle was fought with small resources against such powerful enemies, and out, over the plains to the south. The river was flowing now, broadly and lazily, winding its way past clumps of trees and bush and the clusters of compounds that made up the straggling village. A small herd of cattle was being driven along a path near the river, and from where they stood the cattle looked tiny, like toys. But the wind was in their direction, and the sound of their bells could be made out, a distant, soft sound, so redolent of the Botswana bushland, so much the sound of home. Mma Ramotswe stood quite still; a woman on a rock in Africa, which was who, and where, she wanted to be. | "Look," said Mma Ramotswe. "Look down there. That is the house where I lived with my father. That is my place". Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni looked down and smiled. He smiled, and she noticed. "I think you are feeling a bit better now, aren't you," she said. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni nodded his head.

One last passage to share with you from Norman MacLean's "A River Runs Through It" which is one of my favorite books I have read many times. This is the closing passage to the title story Norman wrote centered around the fly fishing trips he took with his Brother and his Father. This is one where you feel the full emotional impact from reading the entire story, but it is also profound and beautiful on its own. | Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.

Can I move to Australia?