Frederic

Peculiar sends a link to the latest– there always seems to be news– on Emperor Frederic the Second (1194- 1250), of Sicily and the Holy Roman Empire (which wits will still tell you was none of the three)…I have been trying unsuccessfully for years to sell a book on Frederic and his surviving relics like …

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Guns vs Spells

From Peculiar who writes: “I’ve often thought that aspects of the Harry Potter epic would have been improved by this approach….” Also check his blog link to an artist who has drawn The Call of Chthulhu in the style of Dr Suess, including rhyming text– brilliant! As he says, “We have an infant who will …

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Granddogs & others

More running dogs… Dan Gauss writes to tell us his Galgo girl has just given birth to a pup with Lashyn AND Plummer lurcher on the paternal side. UPDATE: “Department of corrections: re: grandogs. It’s just the opposite. Galgo *boy* sired litter of uno. Plummer and Lashyn are on the *maternal* side. A singleton, born …

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Fat Horses

Large- mammal and Pleistocene maven Valerius Geist thinks more is going on with the spotted horse cave paintings below than just realism– be cites their exaggerated fatness as well: “Horses in top condition thus have a large gut-fill, expanded further by storage fat about intestines and omentum. Consequently, the belly bulges downward. Simultaneously, the fat …

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Hawk Trapping

Leonardo Trujillo, a new falconer and friend of my apprentice Gary Moody, just trapped his first redtail “Rojo”. He may find that such “getting ready games” (term from Bil Gilbert) are almost as addictive as falconry itself. Meanwhile, congratulations!

Grandparently stuff

Eli’s Baptism in Santa Fe two weekends ago. With this and a Tom Russell concert and deadlines and trying to get Momo going and editing– BUSY!Eli and doting grandma:Niki and Eli, Jack too…The ceremony, us behind:Lib with Jenny French, one of my oldest friends in duration if not age, beaming on what she calls the …

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Thanksgiving Goats

Our daughter, her husband and our granddaughter were here to visit during the Thanksgiving holiday. I took this picture during one of our field trips while they were here. Bella seems to have decided she likes goats, at least these three sweet Dwarf Nubian does owned by one of our friends. She had a good …

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Poem

Hurt Hawks IThe broken pillar of the wing jags from the clotted shoulder,The wing trails like a banner in defeat,No more to use the sky forever but live with famineAnd pain a few days: cat nor coyoteWill shorten the week of waiting for death, there is game without talons.He stands under the oak-bush and waitsThe …

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