The Nature of Things

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : Image from allaboutbirds.com. All week long there has been a Barred Owl calling from the trees outside our bedroom window around midnight every night. The calls can be raucous at times, but I find them restful. I suppose it reminds me of my childhood when I would fall asleep most nights to the sounds of Barred Owls calling from around the farm. This particular owl has a very distinctive timbre to his voice that makes him easily recognizable, so I'm sure it is the same one every night. He spends several minutes calling from the red oak tree and then he moves on to mark and claim other parts of "his" territory.  *~*~*~* From the category of "it's an ill wind that blows no good" news comes word from scientists that, as much of the world is on lockdown and humans are staying indoors, Mother Nature is taking the opportunity for a bit of a renaissance . There are fewer pollutants in the air and the a...

As  John le Carré  nears his 90th birthday (he was born in 1931), it is good to note that he really has not lost a step when it comes to constructing a convoluted brain-teaser of a spy thriller. His skills are on full display in his latest book, Agent Running in the Field . Even the title of the book is open to interpretation. Does it refer to a "spy handler" who manages agents in the field? Or does it refer to an agent who is running to escape? In the end, it could be both or either. This is  le Carré's first book set in the Trump/Boris Johnson/Brexit era and one of the characters, Ed, expounds what I would guess is the author's jaundiced view of that entire debacle. But I am getting ahead of myself. The story begins with a spy handler named Nat being pulled from that job and brought back to London. Nat is a twenty-five-year veteran of MI6 and he loved his job in the field. He is not happy about being pulled from it and suspects that he is about to be given his walki...

I've been spending quite a bit of time observing birds recently. The birds are always there when I am out and about in my yard and it is comforting to watch them going about their normal lives without regard to our human concerns. Apparently, John Shoptaw has been watching the birds, too, and judging by his poem, I would say he has a considerable understanding and empathy for them. He has empathy for the rare and the common birds, the resident birds and those passing through, including those escaping from wildfires. It pleases him to look after them all. For the Birds by John Shoptaw For the abundant along with the rare birds at my feeder of late For all kinds of birds I’ve lived with here are turning rarer For the chestnut-backed chickadee, who carries her sunflower chip to the buckthorn to dine on between her toes For the chickadees once came to my feeder in bunches For the big round plain brown pair of California towhees who eat in parallel from the bird-crumb table For though t...

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : The Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are passing through on their way north. Here a male and female share a meal at one of my feeders. *~*~*~* The water in the Gulf of Mexico is more than three degrees above average in temperature. This substantially increases the prospects for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes this spring and potentially stronger hurricane activity in the summer and fall. The last time Gulf of Mexico waters were similarly warm in 2017, it coincided with an above-average tornado season through the spring, and then Category 4 Hurricane Harvey struck the Texas Gulf Coast at the end of summer. There are places along the coast that still haven't completely recovered from Harvey. *~*~*~* The current administration in Washington is taking the opportunity of the distraction caused by the pandemic to aggressively roll back environmental protection laws. For example, they want to reduce fuel efficiency standards put...

As our self-isolation continues, I seek and find daily solace in my garden. There is always something happening there. In the front garden, the Dietes, popularly called "butterfly iris" around here, are beginning to bloom next to the old birdbath. Can you see a resemblance between the bloom and a butterfly? The camellia is nearing the end of its bloom cycle but still has a few blossoms. This Encore azalea is named 'Autumn Lily' but could just as rightly be called 'Spring Lily.' Hibiscus and dianthus blooming together. In the backyard, the muscadine grape vines are beginning to green up. And the loquat tree is loaded with fruit. Know any good recipes using loquats? Our warm weather recently has brought out the frogs. They serenade us with their nightly chorus. This one is a southern leopard frog. And this is a little green tree frog trying to make itself invisible against a crinum leaf. My husband recently weeded the bottle tree bed for me, but when it came to ...

Well, we knew how it was going to end, didn't we? Because, in spite of what you might have heard from a certain orange blowhard, facts are immutable and history cannot be rewritten. And so we knew that Thomas Cromwell's road with all of its convoluted machinations would one day lead him to an appointment with the ax. But if we hadn't known that we might never have guessed it at the beginning of The Mirror and the Light , Hilary Mantel's third and final volume on the life of Cromwell. It is May 1536 and Cromwell is riding high.  Mantel picks up the story just as Anne Boleyn has been beheaded by the executioner brought in specially for the purpose from Calais. Cromwell is a witness to the execution and afterward speaks with the executioner and admires his sword of Toledo steel that separated head from body. Then he goes to breakfast with those who had wanted Anne disposed of. Anne had to be gotten rid of because Henry had tired of her and had lost patience with waiting fo...

If you have the opportunity this week, I would advise doing as Wendell Berry does: Leave everything behind and go into the woods and sit on a log that Nature has provided for free. Look, listen, be present there. Take the gift that Nature offers. Peace. It's a bargain. Get it while it lasts. Look It Over by Wendell Berry I leave behind even my walking stick. My knife is in my pocket, but that I have forgot. I bring no car, no cell phone, no computer, no camera, no CD player, no fax, no TV, not even a book. I go into the woods. I sit on a log provided at no cost. It is the earth I’ve come to, the earth itself, sadly abused by the stupidity only humans are capable of but, as ever, itself. Free. A bargain! Get it while it lasts.