Sun seen through clouds with patches of blue sky.
A bank of grey clouds above a patch of blue sky.
Clouds banking over the southeast of Johannesburg.
Clouds with patches of blue sky over the folly (on which a pigeon is perched).
Cloudy Sunday morning in #NorthJozi.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖☕️🗝🚪🍂🌍🌤
Bookcases on which fiction is alphabetised by author surname from Andrew Holleran through Barbara Kingsolver. Three empty shelves mark a gap between books.
Dusting and reshelving with tea in the #LateImperialLibrary on a sunny autumn afternoon in #NorthJozi. We are at Barbara Kingsolver, working our way down the alphabet to Rose Zwi.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖☕️🗝🚪🍂🌍☀️
Olivetti Lettera 31 on a cloth-covered 1950s handmade table, backed by a framed photograph, a reading stand, a jar of coins, a vase of orchid petals, a potted plant, a mini-zen garden, coffee grounds, and a stack of LRBs on top of a stack of Paris Reviews.
A cluttered main desk with bibelots, dictionaries and thesauruses, a printer, and framed photographs. Behind it is a 1980s pupil's escritoire with a laptop, framed photographs, a desk lamp, and bibelots. Linjng the room are bookcases on which volumes of nonfiction are alphabetised by author or editor surname from J. M. Coetzee and Umberto Eco through Immanuel Kant and Naomi Klein.
The swimming pool surrounded by trees, and beyond it, the stones from the old ha-ha and the picket fence separating the garden from the boundary road to the north.
The view towards the northern horizon under heavy cloud cover. On the right, the construction cranes and high rises of Roaebank, in the centre, between the first and second lift shafts of the art deco building downslope, the towers of Sandton City and the Leonardo, and to the right, between the second and third lift shafts, the vulgar developments in the veld of Midrand obscured by mist.
Clearing correspondence ahead of some reading and scribbling in the #LateImperialLibrary as i vicini moralmente deformi, intellettualmente vuoti e politicamente ripugnanti befoul this autumnal #NorthJozi morning with their helicopter.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖☕️🗝🚪🌍🍂☁️
Blue sky and some cirrus clouds over trees shifting into autumn colours and foliage. The top of the Hillbrow Tower can be seen in the dip towards the left of the frame.
Blue sky and cirrus clouds with trees assuming autumn foliage.
The sun dipping in the western sky, seen from the southern ramparts of the West Cliff of the geological Witwatersrand 3.5km directly north of the Johannesburg city centre.
Cirrus clouds in a blue sky over Johannesburg.
The afternoon marking the end of a week of imperial duties in #NorthJozi.
Time to schnarff the chocolate pudding and wonder whose head has to be off . . .
🫅🏾🌳🍃🍁🍂🌍☀️
Red hibiscus flower in full bloom.
Tamarillos at various stages of ripening with a lemon tree in the background.
Several purple granadillas on the vine.
Green granadillas and a passion flower on the same vine as the riper granadillas in the previous photograph.
The fecundity of autumn in #NorthJozi always surprises and delights.
🌳🍃🍁🍂🍅🌺🌍☀️
Sun rising in the east with banks of cumulus clouds on the horizon and cirrus clouds feathered high in the sky.
Cirrus clouds in a blue sky to the south with two kinds of flight, the natural and the anthropogenic.
Cirrus clouds against a blue sky to the northeast.
Cirrus clouds against a blue sky to the north.
Sunday morning skies, #NorthJozi in autumn.
🍂🍁🌍☀️
A ridge-patterned white coffee cup and saucer on a polished pine table in front of bookcases of fiction alphabetised by author surname from Jasper Fforde through Allan Gurganus.
Bookcases underneath and perpendicular to a north-facing window through which the autumnal morning blue sky can be seen; on the shelves volumes of fiction are alphabetised by author surname from Peter Carey to J. M. Coetzee (facing), and from Coetzee through C. A. Davids and Nadia Davids (on the right).
The three lift shafts of the art deco building downslope to the north under a clear blue sky.
A tree shedding its leaves on the street aeen from the south corridor.
Saturday morning coffee in the #LateImperialLibrary ahead of one's imperious cameo—a blink and you will miss it walk-by role, thankfully—20 km north of #NorthJozi.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖☕️🗝🚪🍂🌍☀️
Two piles of books. On the left, from bottom to top: Seàn Morrow's THE FIRES BENEATH: THE LIFE OF MONICA WILSON, Greta Thunberg's NO ONE IS TOO SMALL TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, Hilary Mantel's MANTEL PIECES, F.A. Venter's GEKNELDE LAND, Percival Everett's JAMES, Ama Ata Aidoo's NO SWEETNESS HERE, Bernard Malamud's THE NATURAL, Penelope Lively's MOON TIGER, Anna Seghers's TRANSIT, François Mauriac's THÉRÈSE DESQUEYROUX, Bohumil Hrabal's A LITTLE TOWN WHERE TIME STOOD STILL, André Gide's STRAIT IS THE GATE, Isaac Bashevis Singer's THE MAGICIAN OF LUBLIN, and Giorgio Bassani's THE HERON. On the right, from top to bottom: José Saramago's THE CAVE, Isaac Bashevis Singer's LOVE AND EXILE, Peter Handke's A SORROW BEYOND DREAMS, Marian Engel's BEAR, A.N. Wilson's AFTERSHOCKS, Anne Enright's ACTRESS, J. M. Coetzee & Arabella Kurtz's THE GOOD STORY, Penelope Lively's LIFE IN THE GARDEN, Dima Alzayat's ALLIGATOR & OTHER STORIES, Edmund White's A PREVIOUS LIFE, Penelope Lively's THE ROAD TO LICHFIELD, Alfred Döblin's BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ, and Russell Hoban's SOONCHILD illustrated by Alexis Deacon.
One ventured forth to Midrand (it used to be called 'Halfway House'; the association persists) ahead of imperial duties to be imperiously performed over the weekend and came back to #NorthJozi with these inductees into the #LateImperialLibrary.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖🚕🌳🍁🍂🌍☀️
A wall of books, floor to ceiling.
Bookcases along a wall
Bookcases packed with fiction.
Bookcases packed with fiction.
The views from below while trying to keep above it all in the #LateImperialLibrary in #NorthJozi.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖☕️🗝🚪🍂🌍☀️
Orange berries in a hedge.
Oak leaves changing colour.
Syringa leaves changing colour.
Oak leaves fallen into dried basil in the crook of a jacaranda tree.
Autumn creeps in, chill by chill, on the crest of the Witwatersrand in #NorthJozi.
☕️🌳🍂🍁🍃❄️🌍☀️
Red hibiscus flower against tbe backdrop of the canopy and the sky.
Red hibicus flower.
Red hibiscus flower.
Two red hibiscus flowers not fully opened. In the background, trees on a bright sunny day.
The flowers of autumn in #NorthJozi on the crest of the Witwatersrand just north-northwest of the Johannesburg city centre.
🌺🌳🌍☀️
Sunlight in the east, with some clouds.
Clouds banking to the northeast as the light from the sun, not yet above the horizon, shades the sky orange.
The folly catches the morning light just before sunrise.
The moon just before sunrise.
Pace Ms McGovern, it seems, "there's got to be a morning after" . . . after all. Sunrise in #NorthJozi.
🌄🍂🌍🌖
Two tablets,a mug of tea, Mamdani and Roy books on the khaki-cloth covered table, a stack of Stella Gibbon and William Gibson books to be shelved, in front of bookcases of fiction alphabetised by author surname from Carlos María Dominguez and Stephen Donaldson through Petina Gappah and Cristina García.
The 1980s escritoire with laptop, desk lamp, framed photographs, bibelots, and a shut tablet; the shelf above the work area has volumes of nonfiction alphabetised by author or editor surname from Pahl Gilroy through Nadine Goedimer to Ateohen Jay Gohld, and on a bookcase next to the desk, volumes from Hammond-Tooke and Handke through Herman and Chomsky, Joke Hermes and Herodotus, to Seymour M. Hersh and Jason Hickel.
Handmade 1950s table covered with black and red cloths, on which there are two portable typewriters, a mini zen garden, a 1980s notebook, a vase of orchid petals, mugs, a potted plant, a framed photograph of writers on a Cape Town beach in February 2020, and a stack of London Review of Books issues on top of Paris Review issues.
The main work desk with Mamdani's SLOW POISON, stationery, tchotchkes, a printer, framed photographs, and various dictionaries and thesauruses.
Working in various spaces in the #LateImperialLibrary, in between shelving sessions, as somewhere four fences and a ha-ha over in #NorthJozi folks seem to be boiling an unfortunate creature in a bag of its own juices and wafting the odour one's way.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖📝🗝🚪🍂🌍☀️
Shelves of fiction alphabetised by author surname from Roald Dahl through Alain de Botton and from Charles Dickens through Tove Ditlevsen, with Marie Darrieussecq stacked out of place.
Shelves of fiction alphabetised by author surname from Philip K. Dick through Charles Dickens and from Theodore Dresier through Lawrence Durrell, with Jonty Driver's memoir out of place.
Shelves of fiction alphabetised by author surname from Zee Edgell through Nawal El Saadawi, and from William Fiennes through Gustave Flaubert, with Cyprian Ekwensi out of place.
Shelves of fiction alphabetised by author surname from Jasper Fforde through Zelda Fitzgerald and from Marilyn French through Patrick Gale, with Neil Gaiman out of place.
One has let the shelving get away from one for a bit, now. Time to restore order to avoid looming chaos. Hello, Sisyphus, our old friend.
Shelving ahead in the #LateImperialLibrary between breakfast and lunch in #NorthJozi.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖🗃🗝🚪🍂🌍☀️
Blue sky with a single cloud and the moon.
Birds in flight in a blue sky with bright morning sunshine blazing in from the right hand side of the frame.
Trees shedding leaves on the street south of the Late Imperial Library in Johannesburg.
The swimming pool surrounded by trees in the garden on the north side of the Late Imperial Library, bright sunlight lighting up the east facing parts of the canopy, and the stones of the ha-ha in shade at the top of the frame.
Easter Monday morning in autumnal #NorthJozi. We begin with coffee.
🫅🏾☕️🌳🍂🌍🌖☀️
Table laden with the remnants of a Sunday lunch, and behind it bookcases with fiction alphabetised by author surname from Lawrence Durrell through Frank Herbert.
South-facing sofa covered with orange cloths in front of bookcases along two walls on which volumes of fiction have been alphabetised by author surname from Peter Carey through J. P. Donleavy.Bookcases facing eastwards on which volumes of fiction are alphabetised by author surname from J
Bookcases facing eastwards on which volumes of fiction are alphabetised by author surname from John Banville through Peter Carey.
Bookcases facing westwards on which volumes of fiction are alphabetised by author surname from Joseph Conrad through Richard Ford.
And when the guests have done
I'll tidy up the room
I'll turn the covers down
and gazing at the moon
will pray to go quite mad
and live in long ago
when you and I were one, so very long ago
▫️Janis Ian, 1975
Warm Easter Sunday evening in the #LateImperialLibrary in autumnal #NorthJozi.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖🫖🗝🚪🍂🌍🌖
Bookcases of fiction alphabetised by author surname from Susan Coolidge and William Cooper through Martha Gellhorn and Jean Genet.
Bookcases of fiction alphabetised by author surname from Olive Schreiner and Will Self through Patrick White and Zoë Wicomb; on a boolcase perpendicular to that wall can be seen another bookshelf with volumes alphabetised by author surname from Suroopa Mukherjee through Vladimir Nabokov.
In the garden on the north side of Late Imperial Library, the swimming pool surrounded by trees under lights at night.
The street on the south side of the Late Imperial Library seen through a tree shedding its leaves.
Ensconced in the #LateImperialLibrary on a Good Friday night in autumnal #NorthJozi.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖📝🗝🚪🍁🌍🌖
Coffee in a ribbed, off-white cup on a polished pine table.
The swimming pool surrounded by trees in the morning light.
Aofa covered with orange cloth and pine table with coffee and bowls of fruit in a room lined with bookcases of fiction alphabetised by author surname from Jim Crace and Stephen Crane through Ernest Hemingway and Philip Hensher.
An aeroplane dwarfed by clouds and blue sky over the north of Johannesburg.
Good Friday morning coffee in the #LateImperialLibrary in sunny, autumnal #NorthJozi.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖☕️🗝🚪🍂🌍🌤
Main working desk in the nonfiction room, cluttered with paper, stationery, bibelots, dictionaries and thesauruses, and a printer. On the 1980s escritoire in front of it a laptop is open to its home page. Bookcases of nonfiction alphabetised by author or editor surname can also be seen on both sides of the escritoire.
A row of shorter bookcases in gront of taller ones, the volumes of fiction alphabetised by author surname from Doris Lessing through Cormac McCarthy.
Calendario Romano open to April, showing a young man with a Mediterranean face dressed as a priest wearing a cappello Romano; to the left of the calendar is a table bearing bowls of fruit surrounded by bookcases on which the volumes of fiction are alphabetised by author surname from Janet Frame through Frank Herbert.
Calendario Romano open to April, showing a very young man dressed as an altar boy carrying an implement of worship in a procession in a church; to the right of the calendar is a table and a sofa covered with orange cloth surrounded by bookcases on which the volumes of fiction are alphabetised by author surname from Peter Carey through Teju Cole.
During the rainstorms of April
the oyster rises from the sea
and opens its shell –
rain enters it –
when it sinks the raindrops
become the pearl.
[…]
open your body,
and give birth to pearls.
▫️Anne Sexton, 1975
Rusticating in the #LateImperialLibrary in #NorthJozi.
📚🤓📖📝🗝🚪🌳🍂🌍🌤
Moka pots, coffee cups, and tins of coffee on a kitchen counter.
Coffee in an off-white cup on a saucer.
Sofa covered with orange cloths in front of bookcases of fiction alphabetised by author surname from J. M. Coetzer through E. M. Forster.
The tops of the lift shafts of the building downslope to the north under a sky full of grey clouds.
Morning coffee in the #LateImperialLibrary in chilly #NorthJozi.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖📝☕️🗝🚪🍁🌍
Sunset over rooftops in Johannesburg, north of the ridge of the Witwatersrand. The horizon is yellow-orange, and grey thunder clouds are rolling in from the southeast.
Clouds tinted pink by refracted sunlight at sunset. A seven storeys tall plane tree can be seen in the bottom left corner.
The ridge of the Witwatersrand just north of the Johannesburg city centre; along the bottom of the frame, from left to right, the Ponte Tower, the Hillbrow Tower, the chimney of the hospital crematorium, and the wards of the Charlotte Maxeke public hospital.
The setting sun colours the horizon yellow-orange as grey clouds roll in from the southeast. Satellite dishes and mobile network relay consoles can be seen in this view of the Northcliff of the Witwatersrand ridge north of Johannesburg's city centre.
The end of this Monday in #NorthJozi.
🌇🍁🍂🌍🌒
Bird of paradise flower.
Red hibiscus flower.
Red hibiscus flower with palm leaf spikes.
Brown oak leaf resting in a plumbago bush.
It may be autumn, but #NorthJozi still blooms.
🌺🌼🍁🍂🌍🌤
Oak leaves in different shades of green and brown.
Oak leaves in different shades of green, yellow, and brown.
Oak leaves in different shades of green and brown.
Oak leaves in different shades of green and brown catching sunlight.
Autumn in #NorthJozi; it is immeasurably good to be home again.
🫅🏾📚☕️🌳🌴🍁🍂🌍🌤
Green hills in KwaZulu-Natal.
Cloud cover over the east of southern Africa.
Green and brown fields in southern Gauteng.
Johannesburg on the horizon, seen from the east.
From the KwaZulu-Natal coast back to Gauteng, we return home to the #LateImperialLibrary at #NorthJozi.
🫅🏾🧳✈️🌍🌤
Red hibiscus flowers in the foreground with the tree canopy of oak and jacaranda beneath a grey, wet sky.
Grey, wet morning with a view of the garden.
Cast concrete garden furniture wet in the morning rain.
The brick and railway sleeper stairs from the mezzanine to the lower garden.
The first of several unseasonally wet autumn mornings on the crest of the Witwatersrand in #NorthJozi this week. We depart for the sunny east coast midweek.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖☕️🗝🚪🍂🌍🌧
Small mug of espresso next to a bowl of pomegranates on a table covered with an orange cloth. Bookcases of fiction line the walls of the room, and windows facing northwards reveal a bright but cloudy day outside.
Grey rainclouds above the lift shafts of the building downslope to the north. The tops of the glass towers of the Rosebank business district can be seen in the bottom left corner. The top of the Mall of Africa PWC tower 23km away is barely visible on the horizon between the second and third lift shafts.
The swimming pool surrounded by trees and its legally mandated safety railing on a rainy morning.
The trees at the bottom of the garden with the remains of the ha-ha and a spiked, low fence separating us from the public thoroughfare.
The first post-sunrise coffe in a month on an unseasonally rainy and cold autumnal Sunday morning in #NorthJozi.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖☕️🗝🚪🍂🌍🌧
On the left, shelves of anthologies alphabetised by editor surname or title from Jill Foulston through copies of McSweeney. On the right, empty shelves.
Shelves with Shaksspeare collections and poetry anthologies alphabetised by the poet's or editor's surname from Okot p'Bitek through William Butler Yeats.
On the left, shelves of nonfiction including Herta Müller and Njabulo Ndebele, and on the right, shelves of poetry anthologies alphabetised by poet or editor surname from Seamus Heaney through Wilfred Owen.
On the left, shelves of nonfiction including Franco Moretti and David Morley, and on the right, shelves of poetry anthologies alphabetised by poet or editor surname from Chaucer through Thomas Hardy and Seamus Heaney.
Friday morning reshelving in the #LateImperialLibrary as we approach the autumnal equinox in #NorthJozi.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖📝🚪🗝🍂🌍⛅️
Sun setting due west seen over rooftops north of the Johannesburg city centre; the North Cliff of the Witwatersrand can be seen in the centre at the bottom of the frame.
The view soutwest towards the Brixton tower as the sun sets due west.
View south at sunset, with the Hillbrow tower peeking above the crest of the Witwatersrand north of the Johannesburg city centre; the Charlotte Maxeke hospital is on the right.
The view east to the tree tops of The Wilds nature reserve north of the Johannesburg city centre and the houses of Upper Houghton. A cumulonimbus cloud rises above the crest in a blue sky.
The end of the day at the end of the week of imperial duties imperiously performed in #NorthJozi.
🌇🌍
Oak leaves changing colour in autumn.
Oak leaves changing colour in autumn.
Oak leaves changing colour in autumn.
Oak leaves changing colour in autumn.
The autumn leaves in #NorthJozi.
🌳🍃🍂🌍🌧
Cast concrete table and benches on bricks arranged in a pattern of concentric circles backed by shrubs and trees catching the morning light.
Streaks of morning light on strelitzia leaves and other shrubs and trees.
Sunshine on shrubs, strelitzias, and the trunks of palm trees.
Light bursting through the thick branches of a deciduous tree with palm leaves on the right.
A cool, cloudy day, and one has to focus on not rolling one's eyes or pursing one's lips on the ridge of the Witwatersrand just north of the Johannesburg city centre.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum, #NorthJozi.
🫅🏾📚🤓📖🌳🍃🌺🌼🌍⛅️
