Greetings to the Reader on Salt and Tar blog!
Notice: I’m not a native English speaker, so it can be that some of my texts will be a bit unclear. I will try my best to simplify the original Hungarian text for a better translation. However, in case there would be any dim sentence, sorry for that in advance.
(I chose the flag above because it is also on the label of my favorite rum.)
As can be read in the “motto” of my blog, my primary goal with it is “recreation”. What do I want to say with this? In the past one (or rather, two-three-ten) years, it has become necessary – mostly from the point of view of my mental well-being – to retreat somewhere where I can be alone.
This place was never physical, it always existed in my head. It does not mean a fictional world: it is about my own thoughts.
Recently, there have been a few topics that have particularly interested me. These changed from one to another, but the basic topics always remained, namely the following:
Pirates: the fascination started somewhere in the first half of the 90s with LEGO’s first Pirates series. I think it’s the best series to date, I don’t even understand why the company doesn’t dust it off (apart from some modified reissues). This love was fulfilled in none other than Stevenson’s novel. Now I know that Stevenson and Pyle poetized at least as much on pirates as Hollywood, but the fact is, if it wasn’t for Treasure Island, maybe this relationship would have been just a quick intrigue. They will definitely be talked about in some way.
Tall ships/Age of sails: sometime around the middle of the 90s, the series Captain Cook was broadcast on one of the channels. I think there are few series that are so successful that they can be a gateway drug for a child to the world of sailing (no, Pirates of the Caribbean is not that kind). You can also read about the ships and life in the age of sails on this blog.
So far the past. Here are some topics that have infected my brain in the recent years.
Wargames/Tabletop Games: The holiday in 2022 didn’t quite go as planned – we spent most of the time inside. I don’t remember how, but I spent a lot of idle time by starting to read about figure wargames (mostly skirmish when we say pirates). At first, I couldn’t imagine how someone could bring themselves to make models and paint them. Later on, we will see that I was also absorbed by the hobby.
Rums: this is partly unrelated to the above, but through reading about the Royal Navy and the West Indies, I inevitably came into contact with rum. At first I just read about them, then I started buying them (and tasting them, of course). I’m sure that there will be posts about rums.
Books: reading has always been one of my defining occupations. Here on the blog, I intend to present mostly (but not exclusively) from publications dealing with the above.
I hope it’s clear now why Salt and tar. (If not: salt symbolizes the sea and sweaty work, and tar symbolizes tall ships on this blog.)
I would like to divide the page into sub-pages, I imagine the structure roughly like this:
Salt and Tar: this subpage will deal with pirates, sailing ships and related topics, and I want to come up with a simple naval wargame rule. The latter will also be located here, the name of the system will naturally be Salt & Tar.
Salt and smoke: this subpage will deal with the land side of the age of sails. So all posts that are not closely related to the sea, but approx. relating to the period from the 1600s to the time of Waterloo, read here. In addition to the naval wargame rule, I also intend to create a pirate skirmish game rule. It will be called Salt & Smoke.
Sugar and smoke: I think the name of this sub-site is quite telling. Sugar represents rum, and smoke represents the additional (not necessarily) tangible subjects.
I cannot tell on the frequency of posts. When everyday life allows me, you can read some new posts. About commenting: sharing opinions is a good thing. I will allow comments until your words aren’t off-topic and won’t be offensive/rude. I’m not sure that I will reply to your comments, sorry.