The Nature of Things

The berries which give beautyberry its name, photographed in my garden this week. Beautyberry is well-named. Those shiny berries that develop in late summer and early fall on the 3-5 foot tall shrubs are indeed very attractive, both to humans and to birds which love to feast on them. In fact, I am sure that all the purple-berried beautyberries in my yard were planted by birds - birds who either pooped out the seeds from the berries or dropped them in flight. I do have several of these native shrubs from the verbena family, because, generally, if possible, I just leave them alone and let them grow where they are planted. Historically, Native Americans made a tea from the leaves and roots of American beautyberry ( Callicarpa americana ), sometimes called French mulberry, which they used for sweat baths for rheumatism, fevers, and malaria. A root tea was used for dysentery and stomach aches. Root and berry teas were used for colic. The plant is very valuable in a native plant landscape be...

My rating: 3 of 5 stars People have been telling me for years that I should read the Jack Reacher series, but I always resisted. One of my Mystery Book Club friends in particular is Reacher's biggest fan and is always proselytizing for the Lee Child series and to have him added to our reading list. She likes her mysteries to be full of blood and guts - the bloodier the better. After reading this first in the Reacher series, I guess I can see why she's such a big fan. Thinking back over what I've just read, I count thirteen men that Reacher killed over the course of the few days when the action of Killing Floor takes place. I may have missed one or two. When the blood flows so freely, it is really hard to keep track. Of course, they were all truly evil men with no redeeming value to society. But still - thirteen! The story here, briefly, is that Jack Reacher, six months removed from his Army career, is wandering around the country and has just landed in Margrave, Georgia, a...

In one of the episodes of Orange Is the New Black , Netflix's popular series set in a women's prison, one of the inmates makes a passing reference to “the road less traveled.” This prompts a spirited lecture from her college-educated fellow inmate, Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling). “You know,” Piper says, “that doesn’t mean what everyone thinks it means.”  “Ah shit, we’re about to get educated and shit,” the other inmate replies.  “No, no. I’m just saying,” Piper continues, undaunted: everyone thinks the poem means to break away from the crowd and do your own thing, but if you read it, Frost is very clear that the two roads are exactly the same. He just chooses one at random. And then it’s only later at a dinner party when he’s talking about it that he tells everyone he chose the road less traveled by, but he’s lying. So the point of the poem is that everyone wants to look back and think that their choices matter. But in reality, shit just happens the way that it happens, and ...

Oh, Mike, I do feel your pain! "Way to go, Wally! You're a credit to our race!" (BeauBella made me type that.)

American Coot   White Ibis  Purple Gallinule chick  Anhinga  Snowy Egret  Little Blue Heron Green Heron  Great Egret

My rating: 4 of 5 stars When we last spent time with Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec, he had just solved The Beautiful Mystery at a remote monastery in Québec. He solved the mystery in spite of interference and obstructionism from his implacable enemy - and boss - Superintendent Sylvain Francoeur. He solved the mystery but he lost his long-time second-in-command and the man he loves as a son, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Francoeur had seduced Beauvoir by playing on his physical and psychological pain from an old wound and getting him hooked on prescription drugs, namely Oxycontin. In his mental state, Beauvoir turned against Gamache and Francoeur had transferred him into his own unit and supervision where he could better control him and ensure his downward spiral into the depths of addiction. As How the Light Gets In opens, Francoeur's sabotage of Gamache has gone even further. He has broken up Gamache's homicide division and all of his carefully trained officers...

I was sitting on my patio just at dusk one afternoon last week when I noticed movement in the big sprawling datura plant next to the patio. The plant was full of its large, delicately scented white blossoms on this particular afternoon. The blossoms open late in the day and stay open overnight to attract moths and perhaps bats as pollinators. By mid-morning on the next day, they are gone. Anyway, on this day, there was something moving around in those blossoms. I thought at first it was a hummingbird, although it was a bit late in the day for them, but when I got up to look, I realized that it was an imposter. In fact, it was a hummingbird moth. I didn't have my camera and wasn't able to get a picture, but here's an image from the Internet that shows what the critter looks like. Its scientific name is Hemaris thysbe, and it is from the family Sphingidae .  It has a long proboscis that looks somewhat like a hummingbird beak and it hovers like those little birds. It even make...