The Nature of Things

Where the Sidewalk Ends: The Poems and Drawings of Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein My rating: 5 of 5 stars When my kids were little, among our favorite books to read together was Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. Indeed, one of the best excuses for having kids was reading Silverstein's poetry! Where the Sidewalk Ends was his first collection of poems. He had had a successful career as a songwriter, playwright, and cartoonist before someone suggested to him that he should write poetry for children. He subsequently became most well-known for such work. He wrote The Giving Tree , a favorite of ours, and A Light in the Attic , another collection of poems which my kids and I enjoyed, but we returned often to the nonsense poetry of Where the Sidewalk Ends . I think my kids' favorite poem was Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out . The obstinate little girl ultimately "met an awful fate" because of her refusal to do her assigned chore. ...

Complete Poems Of Robert Frost, 1949 by Robert Frost My rating: 5 of 5 stars April is National Poetry Month and, in honor of that fact, I have decided to re-read (or at least skim) and review some of my favorites. For me, that always starts with Robert Frost. I discovered the poetry of Robert Frost, as I discovered so many things, in college. In my Speech class, one of my assignments required me to deliver a speech including favorite poems. I didn't really have favorite poems. As I searched my memory for what I might use, I remembered the inauguration of John F. Kennedy several years before. The school that I attended at the time had gathered all of the students into the auditorium in assembly and played the inauguration for us on television. Thus, I saw the poet with the shock of white hair, on that snow-covered day, delivering his poem as part of the ceremony. And, all those years later, I had an epiphany.  I thought, "Ah ha! I'll do Robert Frost." But, of course, ...

April is for amaryllises... This one holds a secret. Can you see it? It's a little green treefrog tucked among its petals.   Another kind of amaryllis - the St. Joseph's lily. Roses are also blooming in April. This is the 'Dortmund.'  'Peggy Martin' 'Darcy Bussell' 'Molineux' 'Old Blush' Blackberries also are in bloom. As are many daisies. A few bluebonnets are still blooming. And one or two pink bonnets are scattered among them. 'Tangerine Dream' crossvine is blooming, but for some reason the color just isn't as vibrant as it normally is.  I gave the yellow cestrum a serious haircut during the winter and it has come back strong, filled with blooms. This tub of petunias next to my little fountain is a reseeded volunteer from a 'Laura Bush' plant that I planted in the garden years ago. Every year some volunteers come up around the garden, often in the most unexpected places. April begins our season of blooms for real, s...

It was the moment that many of us had been waiting for since 2008. Hillary Clinton finally made it official. She is running for president. I wonder about the analysis, the thought process that went into her decision. Surely, she, of all people, knows what she is facing over the next nearly eighteen months. Her enemies will be throwing every piece of shit they can put their hands on at her. She will be called everything from a liar to a murderer. She will be deemed too old, too ugly, too fat, too female, (and, also, not female enough) too shrill, and all those other adjectives that ignorant people routinely throw at women in the spotlight to try to shame them and bring them down. Her hairstyles and her clothes will be scrutinized and criticized endlessly. God forbid she should ever wear a scrunchie! But she knows all of this because they've already been doing it to her. They've done it now for the more than thirty years that she has been in the public's eye. Yet she is still...

The Old Silent by Martha Grimes My rating: 3 of 5 stars Continuing my reading trip through the Martha Grimes series featuring Superintendent Richard Jury of New Scotland Yard, I have arrived at the tenth entry, The Old Silent . So, I'm not quite to the halfway mark yet in a series that extends, to this point, to twenty-three books. The series has evolved quite a lot since its beginning. Sgt. Wiggins has become a more fully fleshed-out and sympathetic character. Brian Macalvie, the stubborn District Superintendent who never gives up on a case, sometimes returning to a years-old crime to solve it and who, it seems, is never wrong, has become a returning character in these stories. And we've become more familiar with all the residents of the sleepy little village of Long Piddleton, especially amateur detective Melrose Plant. All in all, it is a good mix of interesting characters, enough to keep the reader involved and invested in the outcome. In this book, we see Richard Jury som...

Is there any sound more peaceful than the conversation of trees when a gentle breeze rustles through their leaves? It is a sound to soothe the soul and that, I think, is why we enjoy having them close to our dwelling places. Robert Frost understood this. The Sound of Trees by Robert Frost I wonder about the trees. Why do we wish to bear Forever the noise of these More than another noise So close to our dwelling place? We suffer them by the day Till we lose all measure of pace,  And fixity in our joys, And acquire a listening air. They are that that talks of going But never gets away; And that talks no less for knowing, As it grows wiser and older,  That now it means to stay. My feet tug at the floor And my head sways to my shoulder Sometimes when I watch trees sway, From the window or the door. I shall set forth for somewhere, I shall make the reckless choice Some day when they are in voice And tossing so as to scare The white clouds over them on. I shall have less to say, But...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : It's breeding season and birds put on their best finery for the event. The long ornamental feathers and heightened colors of this Great Blue Heron are all a part of his strategy to attract the opposite sex. They indicate to potential mates that he is healthy and strong and would bring good genes to the match. *~*~*~* In very good news for pollinators this week, Lowe's has announced that it will stop selling neonicotinoid pesticides that are deadly for them. The neonicontinoids have been implicated in the drastic decline of honeybees around the planet but they are equally destructive to native bees as well as butterflies, moths, and other insects that provide pollination services to plants. Lowe's says that it will phase out the selling of these pesticides over the next four years, so in the meantime, we will still have to be vigilant about the contents of the pesticides that we buy there and we'll have to...