February 26, 2015

field notes, mmxv-ii-xxvi


we see this mockingbird on the same branch most every evening

February 25, 2015

snippets, mmxv-ii-xxv

Gunnar rode away to the Thing, but before he rode from home he said to Hallgerda - "Be good now while I am away, and show none of thine ill temper in anything with which my friends have to do."
"The trolls take thy friends," says Hallgerda.
- The Story of Burnt Njal,  trans. Sir George Dasent, 1861

:)

February 23, 2015

February 22, 2015

crane fly


Pen got to play with this guy before we trapped him in a cup and took him outside. He was pretty friendly.

February 21, 2015

pj and pan


a nice evening walk before the next cold spell sets in

February 19, 2015

blåbär


snippets, 2-19-2015

Eight reasons grackles are awesome (Texas Monthly). May I offer a ninth? They eat fire ants!

One of my favorite grackle experiences was on a little-used trail up near Granger Lake several years ago. For a few hundred yards the trail passed beneath a canopy of tall, tall trees filled with screaming grackles; it seemed like there were hundreds of thousands. They could have picked my bones clean.

I enjoyed the author's thoughts on mockingbirds, too - few things are funnier than seeing a businessman in a suit running in fear from a four-ounce bird. They're fierce little dudes, but they're not all that dangerous. I saw one attack an elderly saffron-robed Buddhist monk; he laughed about it like a little kid - it was glorious.

February 16, 2015

February 15, 2015

why we love russian novels

"...Tell me, Alexandr Ivanovich, as a friend - you do suffer from hallucinations, don't you?"
"Now he's just making fun of me," thought Alexandr Ivanovich.
- Petersburg, Andrei Bely, 1913 

field notes, mmxv-ii-xv