The Study - Nicotiana Tabacum - Some Travel Cigars - Choose them with thought and care .....

(All Photos by Tavarua)

A few of my Travel Cigars.....

The tobacco leaves came from the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico in 1558 to Europe....There will always be cigars....even if i seldom smoke them the smell from the tobacco...brings back memories from the old world...

"Limited Edition"

dunhill...cigars have been manufactured in Dominican Republic since 1989...

"No.4"

Partagas...has always been known to be a superior cigar and the company was founded in Cuba in the mid-19th century.  The countries of origin can easily be recognized - "Partagas 1845" and the Cuban "Habana"

Davidoff...

"Epicure No.1"

Hoyo De Monterrey...one of the oldest brands still in existense..since 1865 - Cuba...

"Gran Reserve"

Arturo Fuente....

Do not forget that they should be savoured slowly for their exquisite flavour and aroma.....

(1948 - Photo by William Sumits)

Sir Winston in his study at Chartwell - 1948. This portion of the house dates back to the 1100s. 

The Study....here is where one can meditate over life..How I always have enjoyed, the study, the trophy room, the library............ old mahogany furniture, Chesterfield, campaign chairs, leather books, the smell of pipe/cigar tobacco, port and old cognac, objects which all have a story to tell. Years and years of memories and more stories embedded into the walls ....

By the way, Sir Winston did stock around 3,000 and 4,000 cigars, mainly his favorite Cuban, in a room adjacent to his study. The cigars were kept in boxes on shelves with labels reading "large" and "small," "wrapped" and "naked" - that was to clarify which ones were wrapped and which were not. He daily smoked 8 to 10 cigars. Sir Winston an epicure, a connoisseur of cigars and wines. T.E.Lawrence (I recommend to read Seven Pillars of Wisdom) use to dine with Sir Winston at Chartwell until his death.

Triple Exposure - UAE/Morocco/Egypt......

(Photo by Tavarua)

Three Countries Later - One Photo.....

"Open the door to life, dive into it with open arms, focus your eyes on the horizon, search and you will find."

Why Not??? - A "Travelers" Leather Jackets....

(Photos by Tavarua)

 Of course - We cannot live without our old well traveled, weather worn leather jackets....

"Deerskin"

Taxidermy - James Rowland Ward (1848-1912)

founder of Rowland Ward Ltd. of Piccadilly...

 The company specialized in Big Game Trophies and all other aspects of incomparable beautiful taxidermy...

Rowland Ward created history and tradition in the hunting world...

Other taxidermists;  For the Indian nobility,the Maharajas of India as well as the highest ranks of British society in colonial times were three brothers (Botha, De Wet and Joubert van Ingen) who owned van Ingen and van Ingen - van Ingen of Mysore - Indian taxidermists in a small village in South India - They were known for their tiger mounts...

(Book to read- Van Ingen & Van Ingen - Artists in Taxidermy author Pat Morris)

A taxidermist - Not to forget - Peter Spicer and Sons of Royal Lemington Spa. 1798 to 1960.

The work of Edward Gerrard & Son’s (the company was founded in 1853) is amongst the finest you can find as well from the Victorian & Edwardian period. Edward Gerrard was employed by the British natural History Museum from 1841 to the 1890s.

"We have lived in the best time and seen the wonders of wildlife and belonged to a brotherhood ...the members of which have memories that cannot be matched...we have lived on into a new world which I do not pretend to understand."

Sir Alfred Pease

(Author, Adventurer and Explorer.)

An era I should have been born in and to agree with Sir Alfred - I do not pretend even today in this new world to understand it.. it is a few of us out here who has created our own philosophy and live by it in our hearts .. I do not state that we do not adapt just that we do not bend in our believes... we are a small tribe and maybe in few cases a brotherhood who understands that life is to be absorbed and to appreciate its splendor of beauty...so look to this day...as sun rises...

Rowland Ward published the first Records of Big Game in 1892

...These published books are today treasured collectors' items. For those interested he published his autobiography A Naturalist's Life Study in the Art of Taxidermy in 1913.

Greetings from Jordan.............

(All Photos by Tavarua)

and ...Aqaba... which is Jordan's only maritime port outlet - Today 100 degrees Fahrenheit......

Giraffa camelopardalis......

(Photos by Tavarua)

"Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in." - Amy Lowell

White Hunters - Ewart Grogan, Adventurer, Big Game Hunter, British Explorer and the first European to traverse the distance of the African continent...

....  from the South in Cape Town to Cairo in the North. A veteran of the 1896 Matabele War, during which he served in Cecil Rhodes personal escort.

During the Matabele War Grogan had walked the first leg from Cape Town to Beira, Rhodesia.  He returned and was accompanied to Beira by Arthur "Harry" Sharp two years after the war and in February 1898 they started the 4,000-mile second leg to Cairo. Sharp never finished as he decided not to continue into the deadly swamps south of Dinka. In early 1900 Grogan returned to London a hero. Grogan became one of the pioneer white settlers in British East Africa at this time another great man had settled there as well his name was Lord Delamere. - This was the new white man's country for any man and women with a spirit of adventure. He later served with distinction in World War I. Another great man who took a different path and followed it to the end of his days - He died in "silence and unnoticed" in Cape Town - the year was 1967, aged 92.