The Nature of Things

Welcome to my zone 9a garden. Here are some of the things that are blooming for me in April. In past years we expected the blooms of the southern magnolia to come in May, but it seems that they are coming earlier every year. At mid-April, the tree is already in full bloom. I added delphiniums to the garden this spring. I'm so glad that I did. Isn't this color glorious? The pomegranate tree is in bloom. Blue plumbago is just starting to bloom. And so are the Blackfoot daisies. And the bronze esperanza. The pineapple sage has been in bloom for a while now and it attracts a constant stream of butterflies and hummingbirds. In the vegetable garden, the beans are full of these delicate little blossoms. And the eggplant blooms give promise of taste treats to come. Nearby, next to the tomatoes, the cinnamon basil is in bloom. The old-fashioned bloomer, 4 o'clock. The bleeding heart has a few of its distinctive flowers. This old canna is a faithful bloomer throughout the spring, sum...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : Resting from my gardening labors earlier this week, I was seated on my patio, idly watching a small group of White-winged Doves feeding on the ground around my backyard feeders. It was a peaceful scene. Suddenly, a brown feathered streak darted across this scene and one of the doves seemed to explode in a shower of feathers as it was grabbed by the Cooper's Hawk and carried away while all the other doves scrambled for cover.    The Cooper's Hawk frequently hunts in my backyard, but I seldom see him/her be successful. The White-winged Doves often feed there and would be the hawk's preferred prey. A nice juicy dove makes a good meal. This all happened in a matter of seconds and then the backyard was quiet and still. The only evidence that anything had happened was a pile of feathers on the ground near the feeders. One feels sad for the dove but somehow exultant for the hawk who has a difficult task in catching ...

This book was a sensation when it was first published in Japan in 2011. Published in English in the UK last year, it also garnered respectable sales. Now the U.S. edition is out, published by Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, and it will be interesting to see how it is received in the long term here. For this is a very different crime fiction/thriller/police procedural to what American readers are used to. For one thing the protagonist is not a detective, although he has been a police detective in the past and for most of his professional career. But at the time that we meet Yoshinobu Mikami, he has for several months been the press director for the police department, charged with liaising with journalists and getting out the story which the police want to get out to the public. It's a role that he finds something like a strait jacket and he does not embrace it. He spends much of his time longing to be transferred back into the Criminal Investigation Division. Moreover, when we meet Mi...

With gratitude to The Humor League for brightening my day.

I've had this earworm wriggling around in my subconscious all week. I'm going to try to expunge it by passing it on to you. So, here it is: My poem of the week, a song by Paul Simon. Here are the lyrics. April Come She Will by Paul Simon April come she will When streams are ripe and swelled with rain May she will stay Resting in my arms again June she'll change her tune In restless walks she'll prowl the night July she will fly And give no warning to her flight August die she must The autumn winds blow chilly and cold September I remember A love once new has now grown old And here, courtesy of YouTube, is a performance of them by Simon and Garfunkel.

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : April is the month when we normally see Rose-breasted Grosbeaks passing through here. This is a pair that visited my feeders last April. *~*~*~* The Deep Sea News blog expresses a fear which many of us have regarding the way things are happening in our country today: "The Return to Silent Spring." With the head of the EPA having decided to disregard the agency's scientists' recommendation and allow the use of the deadly pesticide chlorpyrifos, the authors of the piece detail the potential for disaster.  *~*~*~* But wait! Environmentalists led by the Pesticide Action Network and the Natural Resources Defense Council have filed suit against the EPA to stop the use of chlorpyrifos. We wish them well and will support them in any way that we can. *~*~*~* Australia has been experiencing torrential rains which have replenished inland lakes, wetlands, and rivers. This has been a boon to the birds that live in ...