The Nature of Things

It's March in my zone 9a garden in Southeast Texas and that means... The snapdragons are snapping. The redbuds are budding. And many kinds of bees and other pollinators are very grateful. Underneath the redbud, this old azalea is having a moment. And the coral honeysuckle is blooming just in time to feed all the hummingbirds passing in migration. The Carolina jessamine is jazzing it up. They all tell us that spring is almost here.  White is the color of many of the blossoms of spring. Like this plum tree. The little pear tree that we planted last year is enjoying its first season of blooms. In an untamed corner of the backyard, the wild blackberries are blooming. Indian hawthorn. Ornamental potato vine. Meyer lemon. Mandarin orange. And a viburnum, variety 'Spring Bouquet.' This is a plant that seeded itself in my garden. I didn't know what it was at first, but it looked interesting so I decided to let it grow and see what developed. What developed was a mass of these p...

Hendricks/Pekkanen had a unique idea for the plot of their book; a young woman, a make-up artist, in New York needs extra money to help her parents pay for the care of her disabled sister. The young woman, Jessica (Jess), is "doing" one of her clients one day when she hears about a way to earn money by participating in a psychological study. She sees a flyer that reads: "Seeking women ages 18–32 to participate in a study on ethics and morality. Generous compensation. Anonymity guaranteed." She learns that her client who had signed up to participate has decided to drop out before the study has actually begun. She decides to present herself as a replacement. She is accepted and thus begins an experience that will test her resilience and strength of character. Running the study is a Dr. Shields. The writers tell their story through the perspectives of Jess and Dr. Shields.  Jess finds herself seated at a computer and faced with a series of questions to answer. They are...

Winter in cold climes can, of course, be hard on people, but in rural areas, it can also be very hard on mailboxes. By late winter, they are showing the scars of the effects of the long season. Like all of us, they wait for "news from spring."  Jeffrey Harrison feels their pain. Mailboxes in Late Winter by Jeffrey Harrison It’s a motley lot. A few still stand at attention like sentries at the ends of their driveways, but more lean askance as if they’d just received a blow to the head, and in fact they’ve received many, all winter, from jets of wet snow shooting off the curved, tapered blade of the plow. Some look wobbly, cocked at oddball angles or slumping forlornly on precariously listing posts. One box bows steeply forward, as if in disgrace, its door  lolling sideways, unhinged. Others are dented,  battered, streaked with rust, bandaged in duct tape, crisscrossed with clothesline or bungee cords. A few lie abashed in remnants of the very snow  that knoc...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : Some of our winter visitors are still with us, like this Pine Warbler feeding on a suet cake. Many of them have already begun to head farther north. *~*~*~*  Hummingbird season is upon us and many people will be hanging out their nectar feeders for the little guys. Here's a reminder that it is necessary to clean the feeder regularly and often. Most of the microbes that will live in the feeders are harmless to the birds but there are a few that can cause them problems and they must be controlled by cleaning. *~*~*~* Isle Royal National Park in Michigan got some new residents recently: four gray wolves from Canada . The island's population of wolves had dwindled to numbers that were unable to control the moose population and that would have devastating effects on the environment. Reinforcements were called for. Canada to the rescue! The four wolves were airdropped in to take up their new residence and jobs. *~*~*...

The patriarch of the title is a World War II French pilot hero, now 90 years old. He is honored in two countries, Russia, where he fought for a while with their air force, as well as France. He is a boyhood hero of Bruno Courreges, chief of police in the little town of St. Denis in the Perigord region of France, and Bruno is overwhelmed and delighted when he is invited to the icon's 90th birthday party. At the party, he observes Gilbert, an old comrade-in-arms of the patriarch's son Victor and said to be Victor's best friend. Bruno is called away from the party on police business and later learns that Gilbert has been found dead. The verdict of his doctor who was at the party is that the man choked on his own vomit while intoxicated, but when Bruno saw him, he was not drunk and other witnesses state that he did not appear to be intoxicated. However, the death certificate has been signed by the doctor, and Victor, in the absence of any relative, arranges for the cremation of...

I am a big fan of Han Kang's previous book, The Vegetarian , and so I was eager to read this new book. The White Book is quite a different kind of literature. It is quieter, more introspective and philosophical. At the same time, it is full to overflowing with human emotion. On one level, it is a memoir of the writer's elder sister who was born two months premature and died after only a couple of hours outside the womb. There is a devastating portrayal of the 22-year-old mother, alone and going into labor unexpectedly with no one around to help her. She does her best for her child but ultimately she cannot save her. This is the family tragedy that haunts the writer and her family throughout her life. That first baby, as well as the writer herself, were born in Korea, but, as we meet her, she has moved to a European city which is not immediately identified but eventually we recognize as Warsaw. It is a city that still bears the scars of World War II even as the writer bears ...

Eleanor Oliphant is most definitely not completely fine. Certainly not when we first meet her. Early on we become aware that something terrible happened to Eleanor in her childhood, something involving fire that has left her both physically and psychologically scarred. She is now thirty years old and she is isolated, lonely, alone. She has no friends or family. We learn that after "the incident" she grew up in foster homes and a group care home but she evidently never managed to make any kind of familial connection with any of the people she met along the way. Eleanor has no social skills, no artifice, and no filter. She says what she thinks and is essentially unaware of its effect on others. Eleanor has worked for nine years as an accountant in a graphic design firm in Glasgow and has never been absent from work for one day. She has an inflexible routine which she follows slavishly. She is a figure of derision for her coworkers. After work, she goes home to the small apart...