#Pinho

[soufre-de-paris]

Please show Pinho (no pressure)

a quick snap of the babyman himself in his usual habitat (lazing in the hammock)

[crossedwithblue]

Lending strength in Chrestomanci

So I just noticed this subtle parallel in incident in the Pinhoe Egg with Gwendolen's use and abuse of Cat in Charmed Life.

Gwendolen has been stealing Cat's magic from well before he was old enough to notice it or consent to it, and she gets angry with him when he takes back control over it. She feels she's owed it, she only cared about him for how useful he is. This also suggests that it's a relatively easy piece of magic to do (she's said to be a fairly average witch in terms of raw power), and that conscience/law are what hold most people back from doing it (though Cat being an infant at the time probably helps. It's also possible that Gwendolen herself, being a small child, didn't really realise what she was doing until later on).

Contrast this to the egg-hatching scene in PE, where Millie helps the egg hatch. Irene, Cat and Millie lend the egg their strength; Irene doesn't know how, so Cat 'does it for her'. The 'strength' required by the egg is physical, but it does seem that they're lending it magical strength and it's certainly done by magic. Again, this is the taking of someone's strength/power by someone else, but the difference is that Irene very clearly wants to help and has consented to lending her strength (by placing her hands on the egg), so Cat is only facilitating the process, and the power is ultimately being used for good, to save the griffin's life.

I'm sure there are other instances of strength-lending in the novels, but the ones I can remember involve a willing and deliberate lending of your own strength to someone else.

(Pardon any weird grammar or phrasing, I am very sleep deprived)

[lexie-squirrel]

[sniperct]

"Tar-Miriel and Nimloth" by Juliana Pinho

[herbofgraceandpeace]

trying to decide which of any of the other books in the chrestomanci series to reread now that I’ve finished The Lives of Christopher Chant. The trouble is I’ve got mixed feelings about ALL of the others? So…………….

[quietflorilegium]

"He was wearing clothes Cat had never seen him in before, plus fours with thick knitted socks and big walking shoes, and a sweater on his top half. Cat had never seen Chrestomanci in a sweater before, but as he was also carrying a walking stick, Cat supposed that these were what Chrestomanci thought of as clothes for walking in."

Diana Wynne Jones, "The Pinhoe Egg"

[e-b-reads]

@bigcats-birds-and-books tagged me to post some books I want to finish before the end of the year, and @wearethekat tagged me to post some I want to read next year! Since I generally am not planning super far ahead on my own reading, and I have no books I feel I must finish by Dec 31, I'm doing a combo list! Here's some stuff I want to read next (with "next" meaning probably sometime within the next couple months).

The Alpine Zen, by Mary Daheim - For the end of November and the beginning of December, I was just binge-reading a 26-book (it's alphabetical) mysteries series on Libby. It's not a perfect series, but it's good enough that I was sucked in, and I have more time for reading this time of year. Unfortunately, my county's Libby doesn't have the last book in the series!!! Luckily, I was already starting to get less invested by book 24 or so, but I sure would like to see how it wraps up. So putting a pin in this one.

To Live and Die in Dixie, by Kathy Hogan Trocheck - While suffering withdrawal from the above series, I've been poking around looking for a new (maybe shorter) mystery series to distract me. This is book 2 in a promising one. When I say I will read this next, I really mean it - I'll probably be reading it tomorrow.

Conrad's Fate and The Pinhoe Egg, by Diana Wynne Jones - I was doing a spur-of-the-moment reread of the Chrestomanci series this fall, and stopped at these two, so I'd like to pick them back up and finish the reread so I can make more posts about it!

The Signal and the Noise, by Nate Silver - This is a book I need to just grit my teeth and finish - nonfiction, interesting in some ways, I think Nate Silver is smart but that doesn't mean I always agree with how he thinks about things. I got further this time than the last time I tried to read this book several years ago, but I haven't picked it up in like a month or two.

Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer - This probably is a 2025 book, because I asked for it for Christmas and I think it will be a good book to read slowly in between other things! So assuming my parents follow through and I receive it...

I also have this urge to read The Odyssey, probably the Emily Wilson translation, but my library copy keeps coming due before I get very far. So that may be an eventual 2025 project and/or purchase.

I have not been poking around the most recent posts on tumblr in a minute, and also I combined tag things here, so I'm just going to take the route of saying: if you want to make a list like this, please do! and tag me in it! open invite!

[pearcaico]

Fotografia Tirada do Alto José do Pinho - Recife Em 1963.

Photo Katarina Real.

[dance-world]

Marlon Sales - photo by Pedro Pinho

[watchingroger]

I was listening to Chrestomanci audiobook on a walk when a cat jumped from behind the tree and hid in the bushes, truly a magical moment🪄🐈‍⬛

(I'm currently on Chapter 14 and it's so cozy and wonderful, thank you Deer<3)

Gasp! An Asheth temple cat!

I’m so glad you’re enjoying it <3

[lexie-squirrel]

[knightwithakay]

can I offer you a Pinhoe Egg in this trying time?