This one is the only one by Bertholdt Brecht I like, at least outside of his collaborations with Kurt Weill, and one of only two great quotes by diehard Marxists I can remember. Anyone know the other? Hint: it was by the most interesting old Commie ever… Brecht, though: “Would it not be easier In …
Month: April 2014
Weekend Doggage
The imperturbable Almaty Ataika, Queen of the universe and still looking young, surveys her Brokedown Palace.
Cowboy Humor
Montana writer and third generation rancher John Moore has a good new novel coming– which somehow led to this photo by and of his friend, western cartoonist Wally Bagdgett (who is also a thinly disguised character in the book): I am not sure who wrote the caption… “Wally Badgett, creator of the “Earl” cartoon, announces …
Overland Traveller
My sometime neighbor for almost 20 years, Rolf Magener, is sort of a professional traveler (at least when he is not stopping at the apartment of a Swedish countess in Buenos Aires, where I just sent my copy); two years ago he was sailing across the South Pacific, and he sent me my treasured photo …
Turkmeni Falconry
Some of you know Vadim Gorbatov’s painting of a Turcoman falconer waiting out a sandstorm with tazi and saker. Sir Terence Clarke just sent this excellent little video of hunting there. My Ataika, though born in Kazakhstan, is rather a Turkmeni type. And the falconry is almost just like the kind we practice but for …
Salt Marsh Spring
Sister Karen and brother in law George Graham check in from the Massachusetts coast about their excellent interface with the wild; the sea’s edge borders wilderness even near the biggest cities. George says: “We’ve been enjoying the wake up in our back yard, Great Esker and the Back River. We’ve identified at least three nesting …
Peter Matthiessen, RIP
Peter Mattthiessen has died at 86. the word had been out that he was not well, but he had been a figure on the horizon for all of us who write about nature for a lifetime, and like Patrick Leigh Fermor it seemed he might go on forever… I thought as a writer he could …
Mississippi Flyway
I was back in Arkansas in January visiting my father and it occurred to me it had been years since I had been there during migration season. I thought I’d use this post to put up a few pictures I took. I was amazed at how Snow Geese have taken over the flyway. If you …
Ivanpah
Back in February, Connie and I flew from Denver to John Wayne Airport in Orange County to visit our kids. Shortly after we crossed the Colorado River into California, we saw flashes of light out our window on the north side of the plane. Knowing solar energy as we do from our work, we quickly …
Hot Links
Archaeologists working in Nebraska have excavated sherds of European ceramics in an 18th century Indian site that they believe may be evidence of the ill-fated Villasur Expedition. In the early 1700s, French traders from Louisiana began to expand their activities west across the Plains into what Spain considered to be its territory. In the summer …