Book #31 Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A gentle, moving, whimsical tale by the author of The Guest Cat set in a café in Tokyo where coffee has been served for 100 years, from where folklore says it is possible to travel back in time. Those who wish to do so must sit in a particular chair and their time spent in the past is limited to the time taken to drink the cup of coffee in front of them before it gets cold. They can only meet customers who patronise the establishment and have to understand that, no matter what, their experience will not change the present.

Four visitors each take such a journey. Each story is touching and told with great empathy for the individual time traveller. To go back to a moment in the past and return in the short time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. Do you see the person you want to, does anything change?

A clever tale told with charm and great skill.

My thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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Bewick's Swan Numbers show alarming crash

The UK's smallest and rarest swan has suffered an "alarming crash in numbers", the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust has said. The Slimbridge-based charity said more than a third of Bewick's swans have disappeared since 1995, when the total population peaked at 29,000. The latest figures show that, by 2010, there were just 18,000 left.

Scientists believe illegal hunting, power lines and lead poisoning have contributed to the drop in numbers. The charity said it feared the next census, due this winter, would reveal a "further, more worrying decline" in population.

In some winters, the Ouse Washes spanning Norfolk and Cambridgeshire receives 33% of the northwest European Bewick's swan population. Head of UK waterbird conservation Eileen Rees said swans were not producing enough offspring to replace the ones that have died over the year.

"We have two possible solutions - to find out and address what's hampering breeding, and to reduce the number of preventable deaths along their migration route," she added. "We have a plan in place to do both, and much work is underway already, but we need to do it all if we're to change the fortune of our wildest and most beautiful swan."

The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust started studying Bewick's swans 50 years ago and it has now recorded in detail the lives of nearly 10,000 individual swans. The charity is currently working on the Bewick's Swan International Action Plan, which aims to stabilise the population.

Bewick's swans breed in the cold Arctic tundra of northern Russia. The western population winters in northern Europe, including the British Isles, while the eastern population heads towards China and Japan for the winter season.

Bewick's are a subspecies of the tundra swan and the smallest swan in Europe.

World Cat Day

Friday 8th August is World Cat Day. It was founded in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and other animal rights groups.

Cats have been associated with humans for at least 9,500 years, and are currently the most popular pet in the world. Owing to their close association with humans, cats are now found almost everywhere in the world. Cats are a common companion animal in Europe and North America, and their worldwide population exceeds 500 million. In 1998 there were around 43 million cats in Western Europe, 33 million in Eastern Europe, 7 million in Japan and 3 million in Australia. A 2007 report stated that about 37 million US households owned cats, with an average of 2.2 cats per household giving a total population of around 82 million. In contrast, there are about 72 million pet dogs in that country.

So, if like me you are owned by a cat or cats, give them a special hug today!

Time to end Japanese Dolphin hunt cruelty...

Nick Harvey MP has tabled an EDM concerning the hunting and slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. Lobby your MP to sign up for this. This horror has to stop. 

Time to end Japanese dolphin hunt cruelty - Nick

nickharveymp.com