In the owls-of-the-eastern-ice book, they used mist nets over the streams to try to catch owls. They caught a lot of other birds, mostly, but they got Mandarin ducks, too. How would it be to see such a resplendent bird on an icy stream in their natural habitat? The color and form would be such …
Too cute, too funny, too cool.
Driving Goldfish You know somebody is going to start racing them. Too cute, too funny. Also, how long before we see road rage blossom.
Graphic Cover
I don’t know the guy, or his work, but I love the graphic novel sytle cover. Artist unknown.
Joan Didion, RIP
Joan Didion died last week at 87. She was the best, from her bleak existential novels of the sixties and seventies to her late memories of a certain kind of California girlhood. I used her to teach, and I think sometimes that everything my writing students needed to know was in this short passage, about …
Owls of the Eastern Ice
Owls of the Eastern Ice I stumbled over this somehow before it was out. Being about the Russian Far East, I was interested. I had never heard of Blakiston’s fish owl and was surprised it was the largest owl in the world. I was even more surpised it fished in the rivers there all winter …
Corbett
MAN-EATERS: Champawat Tiger A friend sent this video link, a week ago. I asked him if he knew of Corbett and his books. He didn’t so it prompted me to dig out a copy I had of to let him read. I hadn’t looked at it in 20 years so I started reading it out …
A Harlequin New Year’s
Open in a new tab twice to see full size. Sources It is Harlequin season again. The local birders take a lot of good pix of them through the winter. It is easy to see why. They are one of the most beautiful birds in the world in one of the most beautiful places, i.e. surf. …
How to Win a Long Distance Pigeon Race
From Patrick Porter, the best writer you haven’t read: How To Win a Long Distance Pigeon Race It helps if your Dad kept pigeons in his youth because his father dabbled with them along the Saugus River in Lynn, Massachusetts. They also kept ducks and a few chickens but Dad spent most of his …
Notes on The Kingdom
Sonoma County CA black-perigord-truffle I saw this last week and it reminded me that Steve has posted about mushrooms a fair bit. Truffle Breakthrough This was a much more interesting piece than the CA one. A great piece, in fact. Good writing, a fungal related quest, a mystery, failure, and underdog success. It hits a …
Being a Human
Steve posted a quote from his prior book in Nov.