Aurora

The osteospermum have been so slow coming into flower, but now they are wonderful as we are going away tomorrow.  They flank a marble sculpture called "Aurora" by our lovely friend Inger Sannes.

In the Summer I try to read a wide variety of books.  Yesterday I finished "War with the Newts", a science fiction book written in 1935 by Karel Capek, a Czech contemporary of Kafka. It's about the exploitation of a rare species of intelligent giant newts.  Eventually the newts outnumber the humans on the planet and turn against their slave-masters.  It's a parable about the evils of capitalism, nationalism and national socialism (the author was Jewish).  It was recommended Summer reading by The Economist because of its uncanny parallels with the current debate about Artificial Intelligence.  My extra is three images generated by Photoshop with the prompt "Giant Newts in Prague" (which is how the novel ends).