Llyfrgell dydd Llun

Which basically means--Library Monday, but doesn't sound nearly as nice in English as it is not alliterative like it is in Welsh.

I am a big fan of the public library.  I will admit that when we lived in Louisiana I did not use it as much as i should have. I mean, you had get in the car and drive there which was a right pain in the arse.  Though there were closer branches, i preferred the Main Branch downtown, but it was far away and involved navigating those weird one way streets of downtown Alexandria. 

Not fun.

So in the summers when I worked for the public library, i used it a lot. In the years where Spiderman worked for the public library, i used it a lot, too.

But since we have moved to the UK it has become my lifeline. Literally. Now that we live car-free and walk everywhere I got to the library several times a week. Not only to get books but also too read the newspaper and use the computers for lesson planning and printing. I love it there and everyone on the staff knows me  by name.

it's a bit like the bar in Cheers except without the alcohol. 

I am always interested in what other people are reading. When i talk to children it tends to be the first question that I ask. Every day at my old school in England I had at least half a dozen children come to me voluntarily before school, on the playground etc to tell me all about the book they were reading. many children kindly said, "I can let you borrow the book when i finish it, Miss."  

Good times. 

Even now, on Wednesdays when i tutor H *always* bring me his latest book to share. 

It warms my heart.

I am an eclectic reader. i like fiction and nonfiction, cookbooks and craft books. Science and religion books as well good old fashioned who-done-it mysteries. I thought it would be fun to see what I checked out this week:

I was intrigued by the book called The Carmarthen Underground because that is where we live. I finished this book last night. it was alright--not brilliant by any means, but a fun romp about a secret undercover intelligence agency right here in our town with lots of familiar landmarks (The entrance to the headquarters was next to the (now defunct)  Wimpy Burger and one character lived on Little Water Street) plus it was peppered with Welsh--lots of "Sut mae'r mynd? (how's it going?) and the affectionate tag bach meaning little one used in speaking. Our friend Arwen says that all the time to me,  hello bach, come give me a cwtsh. Which basically means--Come here darlin' and give me a hug. 

I just started on the book A is for Arsenic. it is a fascinating book about all poisons used in Agatha Christie books  What the poison is, it's chemical make-up, how and when and by whom it was discovered, what the effects are, how it features in her stories, other stories where the poison features and any real murder cases where it was used. Fascinating stuff!

Spiderman was a bit worried when i brought it home as I do all the cooking thinking I might be trying to poison him to get all his money and then we had a laugh because he has no money! 

The other books I am not ready to start yet. One is a Mitch Albom book--I have liked everything i have ever read by him. I highly recommend Tuesdays With Morrie and The Five People You Meet in heaven. 

The other is an autobiography in pictures by author and illustrator Michael Foreman.

What are you reading?

Lucky Duck

I admit it. I am a competition hound. If it is free to enter and has stuff we would use--i am all for it. I know some people enter everything and try to win big screen tellys and all that, but we don't need a big screen telly and it would be a faff to try to sell it on via Ebay or the local newspaper or whatever.

I only deal in stuff we actually could use.

And I am pretty lucky. There is the free magazine that you get at at the health food shops called Your Healthy Living that always has a competition page. Most of it is vegan --but not all. Sometimes you find bee products hiding in stuff  like an eye cream with propolis or something with whey, but mostly it is good.

Sometimes stuff is vegan just not gluten free and I will enter that as well. This month you could enter to win a hamper from Suma where 80% of the stuff was vegan like posh olive oil, sun dried tomatoes, fancy olives etc. I could just give the dry pasta away to a non gluten free friend of mine if I should happen to win it.

I enter every month and this month i won something!

I went downstairs to check the post yesterday and there was this lumpy envelope addressed to me on the door mat. Hmmmm...what could it be?

I was slightly concerned--I racked my brain to recall if I had ordered anything recently. No. Was i expecting something? No.

So I opened it and peeped inside and lo and behold! i was a winner!

Woohoo! I got four (count 'em four!) Wild Thing organic nut and seed bars! These things can cost 1 quid or more each depending on where you shop,  so i was pretty chuffed to get four bars!

They are wholefood bars that are raw, vegan, gluten free, organic and paleo!

My flavours are:
Cacao and almond
Coconut and chia
Nuts and seeds 
Berries and seeds (which contains mulberries and so i am super excited about this one as i haven't had mulberries in a over a year since we moved to Wales)

I am thrilled to have won and hope I will be lucky again soon!

Thanks Wild Thing! You make my heart sing! You make everything groovy (and delicious!)

Diwrnod Dewi Sant (St David's day)

Well ffrindiau, March the first was St David's day. St David is the patron saint of Wales (and of doves) and it is a big deal here. Many places in Wales have parades and events and all sorts of stuff going on. Some friends from the Carmarthen Vegans had an outing last  weekend in honour of Dewi Sant --we especially like him because he was a vegetarian and early animal rights activist. He was a tad bit on the extreme side with his asceticism (we Carmarthen vegans love to have fun) but his ideas about animals were right on the money.

So who was St David? 
According to an article in the Telegraph with a bit of wiki thrown in:

He was born in Caerfai in Pembrokshire, Wales in around 500 AD. He was recognised as a national patron saint at the height of Welsh resistance to the Normans. He helped to spread the word of Christianity, and he founded around 12 monastaries in his lifetime. Monastaries founded by him were known for their extreme asceticism, where monks abstained from worldly pleasures, living on a diet of bread, vegetables, water.They also did all hard labour themselves, including farming without the aid of ox to plow the fields.

While little is known about St David's life, he is known for performing miracles. His most famous miracle was when he was preaching to a large crowd in the village of Llanddewi Brefi stands on the spot where the ground on which he stood is reputed to have risen up to form a small hill so that those gathered could see him better. A white dove, which became his emblem, was seen settling on his shoulder. John Davies notes that one can scarcely "conceive of any miracle more superfluous" in that part of Wales than the creation of a new hill. note: this cracks me up because if you have ever watched Little Britain the village of Llanddewi Brefi is where "the only gay in the village" lives. Also Wales is full of hills. Everywhere you go is uphill, both ways. I swear. That is the Welshest miracle ever!

St David also lived after eating bread poisoned by monks at his monastary who tired of their life of austerity, and restored the sight of his tutor, St Paulinius. Ha! This is why St David needed to be a bit more of a "joyful vegan"--so his own monks wouldn't revolt against him!  

In medieval times, St David was thought to be the nephew of King Arthur. In some stories, it is his mother who was the niece of King Arthur. Legend also says that St Patrick foresaw David's birth.

St David is thought to have died on March 1, 589 AD, and his remains were buried in St David's Cathedral in Pembrokeshire, which was a popular place of pilgrimage after he was canonised in 1120 AD.

 

the daffodil is the national symbol of Wales

People often wear leeks in remembrance of St David's guidance during the battle against the Saxons when, supposedly, St David advised Welsh warriors to wear a leek during a battle with the Saxons, so enemies and allies could be distinguished.

They won the battle and leeks became a Welsh symbol.

 

During St David's last sermon he said words to his followers were: "Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us."

"Do the little things" has become a well-known inspirational saying in Wales.

So when the Carmarthen vegans heard that you could get into the Botanic Gardens for FREE (am ddim!) on the weekend before St David's day we were there like a shot because love nothing more than a free day out with lovely outdoor surroundings and a picnic lunch (even if it is freezing cold!)

It was fantastic. We walked all around the outside gardens and when we got cold we went into the dome. The dome was used in the Doctor Who episode of The Waters of Mars as Bowie Base One.

Inside the dome there were lots of stalls selling their wares--crafts like stained glass to spicy chutneys. Of course the obligatory sausages (Wales is a farming country, sadly) but we just ignored those and looked at all the other things. There were several choirs singing--both in Welsh and English. There was a fabulous duo called Fiddlebox walking around and playing their instruments like ghostly apparitions. George Whitfield on accordion and Helen Adam on violin wandered the grounds and the sounds of traditional Welsh tunes like The Ash Grove and All through the night floated over the hills. Magical!

There was also tonnes of people wearing traditional dress. I love the Welsh national costume--the stovepipe hats the women wear are astounding. Several men and women in traditional dress did some folk dancing which reminded me of my old days in Hitchin at Staplers and The British Schools Museum.

My heart longed to join in and then what do you know--the call came for others to dance! I was over there like a shot, my face beaming and my feet bouncing up and down in little hops. It was only then did I notice that this was mainly aimed at kids and their parents. Some nice lady in a stovepipe hat asked where my partner was and so I quickly called my friend Priya over as I knew she loves to dance and doesn't mind looking a bit of a fool. I'm in my pink coat and Priya is in yellow. You can't miss us!

Big circle of fun

this dad had to step in because the little girl would not hold my hand!

1, 2, 3 clap!

swing your partner

skip to the right

swing this way

swing that way

We were heading to the café at this point to get a hot drink, but after the dancing I certainly didn't need one!

We had a brilliant day, enjoying the view, feeding a duck, stuffing our faces full of vegan goodies and laughing like crazy. All for free. It really doesn't get an better than this, folks.

We had so much fun we decided to make this a St David's day tradition. Hoorah!

Goodbye Polychrome, spider of many colours

Sadly, we must say goodbye to our tiniest of the Spiderbabes--Polychrome. Polychrome was our second arboreal spider (a tree climber as opposed to a ground dweller) who was preceded in death by her arboreal cousin Pirouette. 

We brought her home when she was no bigger than a popcorn fart (as my grandmother Sweetie used to say). It is true. She was teeny tiny. No bigger than my thumbnail.

She was an avicularia versicolor which meant she would change colour as she aged. She would start off pale blue with a metallic sheen and gradually  grow up to have a metallic green carapace and iridescent red hairs on her legs. She would also stay pretty small--arboreal spiders generally are smaller than their terrestrial cousins. 

She was named after Polychrome the Rainbow's daughter from the Oz books as she was colourful as that beloved character.

This is how Polychrome was portrayed in the Marvel Comic Oz illustrated by Skottie Young.

That's pretty much how she seemed to us. Like a little rainbow fairy. She was tiny--about the size of a 50p coin and you saw her very rarely. Being arboreal she spent most of her life in a tube shaped web in the corner of the tank. You might see a little leg poking out waving hello, but at night--if you were lucky--she would come out to hunt or get water. 

Today we noticed she was down on the substrate during the day.

Highly unusual.

She wasn't moving and was in the death curl.

 Spiderman kindly said that just because you name your spider after an immortal being doesn't mean they will be one.  Poor Polychrome. 

But then, after we removed her little body (made even smaller by the death curl) we saw what we had been hoping was not true, but were suspecting was.

She was a he.

And in spider terms, that means a significantly shorter life span. Males tend to die within a year after reaching sexual maturity. She was four--almost five years old. The time fits. 

Her abdomen was always really small and narrow--a sure sign of being male but she was arboreal so we hoped that was just part and parcel of being a tiny tree climber. It wasn't. 

We put her under the microscope to check for any signs of disease (thankfully there were none) and we saw the two clinchers. 

No epigyne which is the female genital opening. When Blanche was having that bad moult recently (which thankfully she survived) where she was rolled on her side we had a very clear view of her epigyne--it was HUGE. Polychrome had none.

male with enlarged palps

Her palps had a definite largeness about them--wide and flat. Ready to fill up like balloons full of sperm when the time was right. We looked for tibial hooks that male spiders use to hold back a female's fangs while mating, but couldn't find any. We looked up avicularia versicolour in one of our reference books and they are one of the species which don't have them--no wonder we couldn't find them. 

So she was definitely a he.

I suppose Polychrome was now Paul E. Chrome. 

Poor little thing. We have loved you, tiny one. We have loved every  little glimpse we had of you. We loved your rainbow colours. You will be sorely missed.

Goodbye little P. 

I am giving up "arson" for Lent

I am giving up arson for Lent.

No the burning stuff kind of arson.

Arsin' about. Wasting time. Procrastinating. Avoiding tasks.

Because i do not have a regular schedule to my day--sometimes I am working and sometimes I am not--I find more and more that I am arsing about.

Aw, who didn't love Sea Monkeys?

It is easy to do. Thanks to YouTube there are toy adverts from the 70s to wax nostalgic over, music videos from the 80s to dance to, clips of sketches from Saturday Night Live from throughout the ages--the funny and the unfunny to watch.

There is the bottomless pit known as Yahoo News (and I use the term news in the loosest possible sense) where I can read about celebrities I don't know doing things I don't care about.  I can learn hacks for my chopsticks--great! Now I need to learn to use chopsticks before i learn a hack for doing other things with them.  Now I can watch people I don't know getting their face smashed into a cake or falling while taking a selfie. I can watch it and feel my life's energy and will to live slip away.

Yet still i watch it.

For hours.

I never mean to. I always say I will only watch one thing and then it spirals out of control.

But secretly, deep down...I know why I do it.

from lifehack.org

I am afraid of failing. We have lived in Wales for a year and a half and i have yet to get regular employment. I am actually mostly ok with this--because the irregular employment is very good. I work odd days here and there in my friend's shop.  I am also a private tutor to two delightful home educated children once a week. I am born to be a teacher and so this brings me unimaginable joy as well as a bit of cash. The only problem is I wish i had more students.

 And how does one get more students? By advertising--by putting myself out there. To make posters and bookmarks and work at it to get someone to notice me and be willing to let me teach their children.

To face rejection if no one else is interested in my services.

I watch YouTube so i don't have to have people reject me.

Not having a regular work day *should* enable me to spend more time (because I have more time) doing the things I love--playing the ukulele, reading, designing and making jewellery.

Twathammer

But somehow it doesn't. Something is making me read that Kanye West is saying he is broke on Yahoo news and laughing because he has no idea what financial hardship feels like. So what am i avoiding?

Again--rejection. In December i wanted to open an Etsy shop. For those of you who don't know ETSY is a place where you can sell your crafts online. I spend a month making things, photographing things (which was hard without natural light--we had 40+ days of rain and the house was dark) and getting things ready.

Then came the bit where you have to write it all up online and upload photos and set prices and make banners for the shop and think really hard about things and make them perfect.

Perfect shop--so that people will want to buy from me.
Perfect items--so that people will want to buy from me.
Perfect prices--so that people will want to buy from me.

And the nagging feeling that nothing is perfect especially me sent me into a month of watching YouTube in my pyjamas. Did you know you can watch Lifetime Movies on YouTube? Well you can. Dreadful, based on a true story garbage that makes your worries about perfectionism disappear.

No one can ignore me, reject me or even see me if I stay home and arse about.

So what am i doing for Lent? First and foremost, reminding myself that No one fails who does their best for God. 

Secondly, i am banning both YouTube and Yahoo News from my life. I am prayerfully asking God to help me face my fears and get the lead out.

Because I have to TRY. I might not succeed, but if i don't even make an attempt to do these things then I will  definitely NEVER succeed.

I need to change my thinking. To stop worrying about the past and recalling in painful detail the six (count 'em six) interviews i had last year where it went *so* well where they thought I was "amazing" and "fascinating" but didn't give me the job.  And obsessing negatively about the future--whatever i have to offer nobody will want.

I am resolving to stay in the present moment. To notice anxiety and kindly tell it to sod off and then to breathe deeply. I am taking a free online course though Future Learn about Mindfulness. I am already in week two and feeling the benefits. it is a free online course and i would highly recommend it. Go here for details: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/mindfulness-wellbeing-performance


Did you know that anxiety and worry keeps you in that fight or flight mode and your body can not only become mentally ill with all that negativity and tension but physically ill as well? I want to get out of that kind of thinking.

I want to stop obsessing over what I lack. Because, when you really look at it--i am living in abundance. 

I have a roof over my head.
I have delicious, healthy food on my table.
I have my health.
I have a soul mate who loves me.
I have friends.
I am full of creativity.
I live the life others can only dream of--safely immigrating to another country  without being hated or shunned or labeled or feared.  We are so lucky and blessed to live in the green valley of Wales.

What do i lack? More regular employment. Is that it? Seriously, is that it? What else do i have?
Time to write for the blog.
Time to play music.
Time to read.
Time to pray.
Time to create.
 Would I like more regular employment? Yes of course. Would I like more money? Sure. Our budget is tight as a drum, but we are always (and I mean ALWAYS) taken care of by God. There is plenty for everything we need. For example, I have seven days of shop work coming up which will pay our rent for the month. Just like that.

Since we have redefined what we want in life--what is important to us--then pretty much that is taken care of too.

Would I like to have more money to throw at our debts? Hell yea. Would i want more money to put towards our retirement? Uh-huh.

But if I am in the moment and really trying to live Luke 12:22-34 then i am better off.

Do Not Worry
 22Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 25 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life[a]? 26 Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

27 “Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these. 28 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! 29 And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30 For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31 But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.

32 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

So for Lent, I want to change myself, to change my attitudes and fear of failure and face my fears. To feel the fear and do it anyway.

We are only a few days in and already I am seeing a profound change in my attitude and my use of time.

What are you doing for Lent?

Волшебник Изумрудного Города--The Wizard of the Emerald City

Well, after the poetry evening for Spiderman, oh best beloved, we allowed ourselves one more day in jolly olde London town to have a bit of fun.

 

We decided to go to the British Library. When we lived in England the BL was one of regular haunts. They had groovy exhibitions and interesting book talks/author visits all for free or cheap. While Spiderman had used the actually library bit for research, I had not. So we decided to spend our day getting British Library library cards and then browsing some rare and interesting books.

 

To get a library card at the BL you need to bring a boatload of ID. This is stated VERY clearly on their website. Despite this, there were several people in front of us and behind us in the queue who had NOT read the website. The lady was firm but fair—no dice. You also have to request your books that you wish to see in advance because you aren't allowed to just browse the shelves willy-nilly—a designated person gets the books for you. Many of these people were hoping to get a card today and look at books immediately. Again—no way José.   Because we are prepared sort of people, we had requested books in advance and had brought our boatload of ID.

 

We were let through to the next stage –the interview.

 

Yup, you have to have an interview where you explain why you want the books you do and what you plan to do with them before you get your card. I was a wee bit nervous about this, but our interviewer was a sweetheart. His dad and worked in North Carolina for a year and so he was a fan of the American South and asked us more questions about Louisiana than our books.

 

Then we got our cards, went to lock everything up in a locker and filled the clear plastic bag with the few items we were allowed to bring in—a notebook, pencil and rubber (eraser to my American peeps. Get your mind out of the gutter) because NO PENS are allowed. We were searched again to be sure our plastic bag had no contraband and then it was off to pick up our books.

 

We decided to ask for OZ books as they had many that we had never seen. The highlight for me was seeing the Russian version of OZ. In actual Russian. Yes—it was written in Cyrillic so we couldn't read much (I can decode all the sounds in the Cyrillic alphabet but I can't translate too well. My Russian vocabulary is quite small. A few animals and foods.) Mainly we wanted to see the pictures.

 

What a treat that was! My oldest Oz book that is about the history of Oz—about the author L. Frank Baum and the making of Oz books and the 1939 film is entitled The Oz Scrapbook by David L. Greene and Dick Martin. We found this book on a sale table in a bookshop in the mall in the 1970s and snapped it up. But this book had a section of Oz illustrations from around the world. My all-time favourites were ones by Leonid Vladimirsky.  They fascinated me as a child. I loved the Tin Woodman—his pelvis appeared to be a goldfish bowl and he had a long tin tie that tucked into it.

 

We got to see the book in Cyrillic with the Vladimirsky illustrations and it was mind blowing.

 

The book itself is fascinating as it not so much a translation of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz but a retelling by the author Alexander Volkov. In 1939 he re-wrote Baum's book and titled it The Wizard of the Emerald City (Russian: Волшебник Изумрудного Города).   The names of most characters are changed, some elements of Baum's novel are removed, and some new elements are added. Volkov wrote several sequels that were not based on Baum's plot elements, although we do encounter some of Baum's ideas such as the powder of life, a character called Charlie Black who is not unlike Cap'n Bill Weedles, intelligent foxes, and the use of a Sandboat similar to Johnny Dooit's, albeit with wheels.

Volkov also called the books the Magic Land series rather than Oz.

According to Wikipedia:

                Characters

Name	Russian	Translation	Baum equivalent
Ellie Smith	Элли Смит	–	Dorothy Gale
Totoshka	Тотошка	Little Toto	Toto
Strasheela	Страшила	Scarecrow	Scarecrow
Zhelezny Drovosyek	Железный Дровосек	Iron Lumberjack	The Tin Woodman
Truslivy Lev	Трусливый Лев	Cowardly Lion	Cowardly Lion
James Goodwin	Джеймс Гудвин	–	The Wizard
Villina	Виллина	–	Good Witch of the North
Stella	Стелла	–	Glinda the Good Witch
Gingema	Гингема	–	Wicked Witch of the East
Bastinda	Бастинда	–	Wicked Witch of the West
Din GeeOr	Дин Гиор	–	Soldier with the Green Whiskers
Faramant	Фарамант	–	Guardian of the Gates
Ramina	Рамина	–	Queen of the Field Mice

 

Notable differences between "The Wizard of the Emerald City" and the original book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”

•                     In the original book, Winkies' favorite color is yellow. In Volkov's version, it's purple.          

•                     In the original book, the characters at one point have to run away from beasts called Kalidahs. In Volkov's version, Kalidahs are replaced with saber-toothed tigers.

•                                     The Fighting Trees and the China Country are omitted in Volkov's version. Instead, the main characters secondly have to cross river in other place by making another raft, and things go awry when a storm begins.

•                                     In Volkov's version, just before meeting the Cowardly Lion, Ellie gets kidnapped by an ogre, and Scarecrow and the Woodman save her.

•                                     In Volkov's version, Munchkins, Winkies and Quadlings (renamed as Chatters) have different tics involving their people's names: Munchkins constantly move their jaws as if they were munching, Winkies blink a lot and Chatters can't stop talking.

•                                     The armless Hammer-Heads with stretching necks were replaced in Volkov's version with an anatomically correct and physically strong nation of Leapers.

•                                     In Volkov's version, as soon as Ellie and Toto arrive in Magic Land, Toto gains the ability to speak, which he retains until they leave. In Baum's version, this is not the case, and Toto behaves exactly like a normal dog.

•                                     In Baum's version, Dorothy is an orphan and lives with her uncle Henry and her aunt Em. In Volkov's version, Ellie lives with both of her parents, John and Ann.

•                                     In the original version, the Good Witch of the North kisses Dorothy on her forehead, blessing her, and the Wicked Witch of the West doesn't dare hit her because of the blessing. In Volkov's version, Villina doesn't kiss Ellie, and Bastinda is afraid of hitting Ellie because she wears the silver shoes.

•                                     In the original version, Dorothy was unaware of the Wicked Witch of the West's aquaphobia until the latter melted. In Volkov's version, Ellie knew Bastinda was afraid of water, and often left the kitchen floor wet to annoy the witch.

•                                     An additional subplot in Volkov's version during Ellie's imprisonment in Bastinda's castle involves Ellie and the cook Fregoza motivating other Winkies to prepare a coup against Bastinda.

•                                     The prologue in Baum's book tells the story solely from Dorothy's point of view. The prologue in Volkov's book tells the story first from Ellie's prospective, then switches to Gingema then back to Ellie who is running away from the cyclone.

 

For those of you who only know the 1939 film then some of the above differences  (and illustrations) may be a puzzler to you. But for my Mum—she who read all the Oz books with me and started my love for all things Over the Rainbow—she'll get it.

 

If you have not read the original book of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum written in 1900 then I would urge you to. It is in the public domain and you can read it for free online here: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/55/55-h/55-h.htm Someone told me that if you subscribe to Amazon you can download it for free onto your e-reader. Check it out.

 

But the best of this story is yet to be told. Spiderman using his librarian spidey-sense tracked down some cheap second-hand copies of both the 1959 version of the Cyrillic text with the Vladamirsky illustrations as well as a translation of Volkov's  The Wizard of the Emerald City complete with lots of exciting notations and articles in the back about Volkov and his Magic Land series as well as notes about the translation.

 

So, happy reading!