The Nature of Things

If it is true that April showers bring May flowers, then we should be knee-deep in blossoms on this Bloom Day, for we had a very wet April. And, indeed, our wet April has extended right on in to May. Almost every day now we have rain. We must enjoy the moisture while it lasts because it will inevitably end as summer heats up. But for now, let's see what all those showers have brought us.  May is for daylilies. Lots of daylilies. And oleanders. May is also for pomegranates. And...chrysanthemums??? I planted this pot of chrysanthemums in the garden after they finished blooming in their pot last fall, and now they are blooming again. Perhaps they are just a little confused.  April should have been for Easter lilies, but mine are a little late this year. The yarrow is right on time. Among the wildflowers, prairie coneflower is in bloom. And so is the sneezeweed. "Autumn" sage can actually bloom at any season and usually does. Coreopsis. This is 'Coral Nymph' salvia. ...

Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear My rating: 3 of 5 stars Maisie Dobbs has come a long way since her impoverished childhood in Lambeth. This daughter of a costermonger, having been lucky in her mentors and also a willing student and hard worker, has parlayed all of her resources into a successful career as a businesswoman, a private detective/psychologist. She is extremely wealthy, thanks to a bequest from her mentor. She is respected in the community and retains her ties to her old neighborhood, as well. She has a wealthy, titled lover, Viscount James Crompton, the son of the family who did so much for her education when she was a child. Crompton loves her and wants to marry her, but Maisie is unsure of how she feels about that. In fact, for such an accomplished and successful woman, Maisie is unsure about a lot of things. It seems that what she is very sure of is what is best for those that she cares about, her father and her employees, primarily. She tends to try to manipulat...

Today is the 78th anniversary of the birth of the great truth-teller George Carlin. George left us much too early, in 2008, but the miraculous thing is he's still with us through the wonders of modern technology. We have countless wonderful Carlin routines available to us through YouTube and they never get stale. One of those routines is Carlin's take on how our language has changed in order to soften reality for us. We have become a euphemism-spouting society that chooses to see everything in soft focus and refuses to face up to the harsh edges of life. George Carlin was never one to shrink from the truth. Here's a reminder of why we needed his clear-eyed vision of the world and why we still miss him.

The Cruel Stars of the Night by Kjell Eriksson My rating: 2 of 5 stars I'm always hesitant to criticize the translation of a book from another language into English. After all, English is not an easy language, and I think it must be very difficult to convey the meaning of another language into English in a smooth, easy-flowing manner. That being the case, I still must say that I found this particular translation by Ebba Segerberg of Kjell Eriksson's The Cruel Stars of the the Night from Swedish into English to be especially clunky and stilted. It is likely that it contributed to my overall somewhat negative opinion of the book. Having recently read and been entertained by Eriksson's first book to be translated into English, The Princess of Burundi , I decided to push ahead with reading this second book in translation (actually the sixth in the series). I found it much less enjoyable. The plot here was rather confusing. I was well over halfway through the book before I rea...

Reba Cromeans Aldridge 1921 - 2004 Thank you, Mother. For Mother's Day, here is a short poem by Louise Gluck which says it all really. About mothers who draw in the hearts within our broad outlines. Portrait by Louise Gluck A child draws the outline of a body. She draws what she can, but it is white all through, she cannot fill in what she knows is there. Within the unsupported line, she knows that life is missing; she has cut one background from another. Like a child, she turns to her mother. And you draw the heart against the emptiness she has created.

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : In news of my own backyard, I've had a plethora of Ruby-throated Hummingbird visitors this week. It's almost impossible to get an accurate count as they zip around, chasing each other from favorite blossoms or feeders, but I think I have at least five of the little birds.  This is a favorite perch for this female, a crape myrtle twig. There is a nectar feeder hanging from the tree and from this vantage point, she is able to guard and defend it from other hummers. She sometimes has to share her feeder with a few bees. And so does this male RTH feeding from a feeder hung in the redbud tree. Although the feeders have beeguards, they have drips of the nectar that escape and attract both bees and wasps. At other times, he has the feeder to himself.  I have a feeder in the front yard that hangs just outside my office/library window and this little guy has claimed it as his own. All day long, he sits on the crook that ho...