The Nature of Things

I'll be absent from this space and mostly absent from the internet for the next 9-10 days, because we are headed out on a road trip! We'll be traveling around West Texas from Big Bend National Park up to the Davis Mountains/Marfa area. It is a beautiful and varied landscape encompassing mountains, desert, and, of course, that river that gives Big Bend its name. I'll be reporting back with pictures (I hope) but probably not until I'm home again. So, watch this space! 

I had problems with this book. Mostly confusion. This is the third book in the trilogy and by now I guess I should be used to Jemisin's method of jumping around between time periods and characters, without warning and without explaining who is what, as well as introducing new characters or concepts with no background or preparation. But this one really threw me for a loop and I spent maybe the first quarter to third of the book floundering and trying to find my feet. In the end though, I was so bowled over by the creativity of her imagination and the uniqueness of the world that she has built for us in these books that I sort of gave her a pass on her confusing method of presenting the story. Her descriptive writing is clear enough that one can see - or "sess" - the overall picture that she is presenting even when individual parts remain baffling. So, Syl Anagist? What's up with that? Has it been mentioned in the other books? Not that I remember. Apparently, it was th...

This fourth book in the Gabriel Allon series was published in 2003 and once again we find the art restorer/Israeli agent dealing with surviving Holocaust victims and war criminals nearly sixty years after the end of the war. The clock is running out on these people and with it the possibility of bringing any sort of justice to either the victims or their tormentors. This entry finds Allon still working on restoring a painting at a church in Venice. While he works there, a bomb explodes in Vienna at the Wartime Claims and Inquiries Office. The head of the office, Eli Lavon, is also a sometime Israeli agent and a friend of Allon. He is seriously injured in the blast and the two women who worked with him are killed. Ari Shamron, Allon's former boss at the Israeli intelligence agency, arranges for him to go to Vienna to investigate. There he meets an elderly Holocaust survivor who insists that a prominent local businessman named Ludwig Vogel is actually a notorious Nazi war criminal na...

To celebrate the coming of March, here's a poem by Emily Dickinson. Dear March - Come In by Emily Dickinson DEAR March, come in! How glad I am! I looked for you before. Put down your hat— You must have walked— How out of breath you are! Dear March, how are you? And the rest? Did you leave Nature well? Oh, March, come right upstairs with me, I have so much to tell! I got your letter, and the bird's; The maples never knew That you were coming,—I declare, How red their faces grew! But, March, forgive me— And all those hills You left for me to hue; There was no purple suitable, You took it all with you. Who knocks? That April! Lock the door! I will not be pursued! He stayed away a year, to call When I am occupied. But trifles look so trivial As soon as you have come, That blame is just as dear as praise And praise as mere as blame. 

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : The redbud in my backyard is just beginning to bloom and that means that this Pine Siskin and its friends, along with the American Goldfinches, will soon be flying north to their breeding grounds.  *~*~*~* And in Washington, D.C., the famous cherry trees began popping out blooms in mid-February. For the second year in a row, spring is coming about twenty days ahead of schedule . This is all a consequence of the warming climate and while spring is welcome to humans after a nasty winter, its early arrival has consequences in Nature that may not be positive. *~*~*~* In November, Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming introduced her legislation to protect energy companies from having to take responsibility for killing birds during their operations. The Audubon Society calls it "the Bird-Killer Amendment." It was attached to HR 4239 which is still making its way through the House, but is being vigorously opposed by c...

This video by Nina Paley seems to be making the rounds on the internet. At least I've encountered it on a couple of sites that I frequent, and if it's there I figure it must be in other places as well. I find it mesmerizing. I mean what could be better than images of ancient mother goddesses dancing to the Pointer Sisters singing "You gotta believe"? Take the chain off your brain Stop, take a look at yourself Stop ridiculin' everybody else You've got to believe in somethin' Why not believe in me? Why not indeed?  You Gotta Believe from Nina Paley on Vimeo.

Finally! My garden has a few (almost) spring blooms opening up. Carolina jessamine. Bees of all kinds do love those jessamine flowers. Poppies. More poppies. And more poppies. And still more. Purple oxalis blooms just beginning to peek out. Sweet alyssum. Loropetalum chinense (Chinese fringeflower). I love these fringy fuchsia-colored flowers. Daffodils, of course. Some in yellow. And some in white. Scabiosa (pincushion flower). The flowers are actually a bit more blue than they appear in the image. These flowers just confirm that spring really is beginning to peek over the horizon.