Incognito While Edgar was struggling with his dam he was building his future in politics. Neither was easy.
Mission Accomplished Edgar reflected that the Great Depression had proved to be the perfect time to embark on the capital development of Witchwood because labor and materials were at their lowest level.
All in a Day's Work One day, after a hard day’s work tending his fruit trees, Edgar had all his workers go home in the best of health about five o’clock as usual.
A Fast Cash Crop One day, at Brown's hotel bar, Edgar heard about Vumba's delicious garden strawberries which had originally been brought over by American missionaries. On the long, steep tortuous drive home from Umtali he mused, if they were so delicious, why not grow them as a crop?
A Triumph After five years of roughing it, initially in a very cold tent and then in rat riddled rondavels, Edgar Whitehead was finally able to move into Witchwood with his brindled dog, Magne.
Keeping One's Cool Edgar put out an advertisement for a span of fully trained oxen, which he purchased reasonably cheaply in Umtali. He had to build a night kraal quickly before they arrived. Winter was coming on.
Making Do It became apparent to Edgar that he had taken on rather more than it was reasonable to try and accomplish single-handed.
Ingenuity at Work Edgar Whitehead decided to make the most of the Rhodesia’s raw materials in the building of Witchwood. He employed his oxen to move the local stone, sand and timber. He had delivered the thatching grass from a neighboring farm.
Ambition and Imagination Taking Shape Sequestered in his tent on the edge of the haunted forest, cold, scratched and tired, bundled up in his sleeping bag, Edgar Whitehead designed his country house with ambition and imagination by lantern light.
Out of the Top Drawer and… into Wildest Africa… Edgar Whitehead was born in the British Embassy in Berlin where his father was chancellor. He grew up in the family manor house, Efford, and was educated at Oxford. The fifth of seven children he knew that he would not inherit the manor house and would have to make his own way in life.
The Life of a Pioneer Wife Dina Masinter and Joseph Schattil, both escapees from the pogroms of Lithuania, married in 1907. Her first home in Rhodesia was at the Jumbo Mine where Joseph had a mine concession store.
All that Glitters is not Gold Conversion to Russian Orthodoxy or conscription into the Russian Army were the only ways out of the ghettoes of the Pale of Settlement in Lithuania. Either one was out of the question for Joseph Schattil.
Shake, Rattle and Roll Gold mining starts out as an adventure with dreams of riches untold. Soon it becomes a mistress, then a master, then a tyrant to be delicately handled.
Featured The Primrose Mine. The Primrose Mine was probably named after the Primrose League founded in 1883.
Rhodesia Blogs Sweating The Globe and Phoenix was a rich mine, South African managed, under the ageas of a London based company with English shareholders unlike the 293 smallholdings in the surrounding area. These mines ran on the smell of an oil rag most of the time, in search of the big lode.
Book Updates Blasts from the Past! I thought a blast or two from the past would be a fitting restart to the short stories I wrote building up to the launch of my first historical fiction book Whitewashed Jacarandas and the launch of the sequel Full of Possibilities.
Book Updates Featured The Sequel is FINALLY Here! Full of Possibilities, the sequel to Whitewashed Jacarandas is finally OUT!
Once Called Home Keeping Their Hats On With all the negative rhetoric over Empire we might be well to remind ourselves that without the participation of her Empire Britain would not have prevailed against Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito and we’d all be speaking German today. Stoic, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth kept their hats on
Another Spotlight: Collusion before the Holocaust As I wrote and rewrote my novel Whitewashed Jacarandas, the first of a series culminating just before UDI, I didn’t intend it to have a strong Jewish focus–it’s just the way it evolved. Readers might be taken aback by Sunny’s contradictory reactions to anti-Semitism on the
Matron Griffin’s To-Die-For Shortbread Matron Griffin’s To-Die-For Shortbread One of my favorite chapters in Whitewashed Jacarandas is the one about the tea at Umzimtuti Hospital on Christmas morning when Matron Griffin circulates her to-die-for shortbread and Dr. Sunny Rubenstein bites off more than he can chew…you’ll have to read the book
Can You Judge a Book By Its Cover? Can You Judge a Book By Its Cover? Everyone has remarked on the evocative cover of Whitewashed Jacarandas. It draws one in. Inside it’s had a great reception too, judging from Amazon Reviews and the book fairs, readings and signings I’ve attended since it launched and rocketed to
Pitching Whitewashed Jacarandas The Outhouse commonly known as the P.K. On night time visits, before venturing in , one had to do a clean sweep with a torch to check for daddy long-leg spiders and snakes of various sorts. Pitching Whitewashed Jacarandas An African Outpost, a Royal Visit and the Pursuit of Progress.
Killing the Monster and Flinging him to the Public 1 Silver Oaks Road, The Doctors House, on the Globe and Phoenix Mine (courtesy of Tess Banfield) Killing the Monster and Flinging him to the Public I am greatly indebted to every one of you as readers and the many contributors who have shared comments, photos, paintings, short stories and
