Hello, again!

Well, that went quickly, didn't it? Here I am at my new site already and the only difference you may see is the change in the URL. Isn't it wonderful when things work like they are supposed to? 

Poetry Sunday: Irish Weather by Tess Gallagher (With note to readers)

 In Tess Gallagher's telling, I have to say Irish weather sounds an awful lot like Texas weather. Or maybe we should just say "weather."

Irish Weather

by Tess Gallagher

Rain squalls cast sideways,
the droplets visible
like wheat grains
sprayed from the combine.
As suddenly, sunshine.
If a person behaved
this way we'd call them
neurotic. Given weather, we gust
and plunder with only
small comment: it's
raining; sun's out.

***

Note to my readers: The Nature of Things is moving to a new domain. It will have a new URL but this current site will automatically redirect to the new one. No action needed from you. The process will begin around 7:00 pm on May 30 and it could take as much as a day to complete. During that time, the blog will not be accessible. I apologize for any inconvenience this might cause.

Also, if you have not signed on as a follower of the blog, I would hope that you would do so. It won't make any difference to your reading experience; I just like to know who my readers are and where they are! Whether you choose to be an "official" follower are not, thank you for being a reader. 

This week in birds - #452

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

American Avocets photographed on the beach at Rockport, Texas. 

*~*~*~*

This is a shocking story although not really surprising. The official death toll from the February freeze that hit Texas this year, turning off the electrical grid and running water for an extended period in much of the state, stands at 151. A recent analysis maintains that the actual death toll may be four or five times that number. 

*~*~*~*

When the next disaster hits, FEMA may be better equipped to help deal with it. The Biden administration has doubled to $1 billion the fund that helps communities prepare for disasters.

*~*~*~*

Wind farms on the Pacific coast? It may happen. A stumbling block in the past has been military objections to the project but on Tuesday the Navy abandoned its opposition and joined the Interior Department to give its blessing to two areas off the California coast that the government said can be developed for wind turbines.

*~*~*~*

Things are not all rosy between conservationists and the Biden administration. Activists are strongly criticizing recent decisions regarding allowing drilling for oil on Alaska's North Slope, allowing oil and gas leases on public land in Wyoming, and continuing to allow the flow of oil through the bitterly contested Dakota Access pipeline. They argue that such moves clash with the president's pledges on climate change and will make those pledges harder to keep. 

*~*~*~*

The buff-tailed bumblebee, native to Europe, is an introduced and invasive species in South America and it is causing problems for native hummingbirds. The bees actually steal nectar that would normally be available for the little birds.

*~*~*~*

Lake Charles, Louisiana has been particularly unlucky in regard to the weather it has received during the past twelve months. Last year it was squarely in the path of two powerful hurricanes. Last winter, along with much of the South, it suffered an extended and paralyzing freeze. And now it has been hit by devastating floods. The city received 15 inches of rain in one twelve-hour period in the last couple of weeks. (Around here we got about a foot of rain but at least it was spread out over ten days.) 

*~*~*~*

Here's more on those "forever chemicals" that I mentioned in the roundup last week. Wastewater treatment districts across the country package and sell sewage sludge as home fertilizer. Now a study has found that the sludge contains alarming levels of toxic PFAS, the forever chemicals. This raises concerns that these chemicals are finding their way into vegetables that home gardeners raise. 

*~*~*~*

A deadly eruption from one of the world's most dangerous volcanoes has caused the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. An eruption of Mount Nyiragongo, near the major city of Goma, last Saturday killed more than two dozen people. The volcano threatens more eruptions.

*~*~*~*

In case you didn't get to see the supermoon/blood moon/lunar eclipse earlier this week, here are some views of it. 

*~*~*~*

Birding and activities related to birds have long been mostly White people's hobbies, but that is changing. More Black people are getting involved and there is now a Black Birders' Week that promotes diversity in the hobby.

*~*~*~*

Here's a species portrait of the white-bellied pangolin, one of eight evolutionary distinct pangolin species that are split between Africa and Asia. All of them are threatened by overexploitation for their meat and scales.

*~*~*~*

The state of North Dakota has used taxpayer funds to finance the plugging of abandoned oil wells. Environmentalists say this constitutes a bailout for oil and gas companies and raises questions about who will pay to close off the nation's millions of aging wells during a transition to cleaner energy.

*~*~*~*

Researchers have found that people of color in every major city of the U.S. are exposed to more extreme urban heat than White people because they tend to live in "heat islands" - the census tracts within urban areas that have higher heat intensity. Just one more example of how systemic racism seems to pervade every corner of our society.

*~*~*~*

Big Oil had a really bad day earlier this and it couldn't have happened to a more deserving entity. Some even termed it a “cataclysmic day” in which three major oil companies received some comeuppance. In one case, investors rebelled over climate fears. Then a court ordered fossil fuel emissions to be slashed. This has sparked hope among campaigners, investors, lawyers, and academics who said the historic decisions marked a turning point in efforts to tackle the climate crisis.

*~*~*~*

Oman is an oil-producing country but it, too, is making efforts to move toward cleaner and greener energy. It has plans to build one of the largest green hydrogen plants in the world to be powered by wind and solar energy. It should be at full capacity by 2038. 

*~*~*~*

What's in a species name? Sometimes it can be things like paternalism, colonialism, sexism, and racism. Species have sometimes been named for some pretty despicable people and there is a movement underway to try to correct that, to decolonize species names because they can create barriers to conservation.

*~*~*~*

The giant river otter that had been feared to be extinct in Argentina has been found there once again. Its sighting and identity have been confirmed.

*~*~*~*

And more good news for another giant: Scientists have confirmed that a giant tortoise found on the island of Fernandina in the Galapagos is a member of a species that had been thought to be extinct for a hundred years. They have compared the DNA of the female that was found in 2019 to that extracted from a male member of the species from 1906 to make the confirmation. 

*~*~*~*

Here's some disheartening news: The number of smokers has reached an all-time high of 1.1 billion people. That's bad for the environment and for humans. Smoking killed almost eight million people in 2019.

*~*~*~*

In a further chapter of the story of the scam to privately finance a section of wall along our southern border, the fraud case against Stephen K. Bannon was formally dismissed by the judge this week because he said the pardon issued to Bannon by the previous president was valid and covered this case. Bannon's three co-defendants did not receive pardons and so will have to stand trial. Meanwhile, the "wall" they built looks as though a strong wind would blow it into the river.

*~*~*~*

A new book by ecologist Chad Hanson maintains that we need a better understanding of wildfires in order to more effectively fight climate change.

*~*~*~*

If you live in the eastern part of the continent and happen to have a close encounter with a Brood X cicada in the next several weeks, please try not to react as CNN report Manu Raju did!

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz: A review

So here's yet another novel about a writer and the experience of writing. Particularly that part of the experience that involves writer's block and being completely devoid of ideas. In such a circumstance, any writer might do what Jacob Finch Bonner did.

Jake, the protagonist of this tale, had had two books published. The first one was mildly successful and was praised by The New York Times reviewer. The second one dropped like a stone and landed with a thud. Hardly anybody read it. Years passed and Jake tried unsuccessfully to write another book. He just couldn't come up with a plot. To keep body and soul together in the interim, he did a little editing and a little teaching. It was the latter that brought him to be an instructor in a graduate-level writing class at Ripley College in Vermont. And it was there that he had a thoroughly annoying student named Evan Parker.

Evan felt himself far advanced in relation to any of the other students and not really in need of any instruction from Jake. His confidence was based on what he believed was a surefire bestseller.  It was a plot that he felt certain would land him a big film deal and a spot on Oprah's couch. Everybody would want to read it and it would make a fortune for him. He was reluctant to share with his classmates but he did give Jake a couple of pages of text outlining his money-making plot. Eventually, he expanded on that in conference with Jake. 

Jake had not been very impressed by Evan's excerpt, but when he heard more of the story, he had to agree with his student's assessment: It sure sounded like a winner.

The writing class ended. Students and teacher each went their own way. Jake continued with his editing and occasional teaching gigs. Two and a half years passed and from time to time Jake thought to check and see if that "surefire bestseller" had ever been published. Then, on googling Evan's name, he learned that his student had died only a couple of months after the writing class ended. Further inquiries revealed that Evan, who had had a known drug problem, had overdosed. He never got to write his masterpiece.

So, what's a down-on-his-luck writer with no ideas of his own to do when he knows that a great idea for a plot is going begging because the person who thought it up died before he could write it? You guessed it: He "borrows" the basics of the plot and writes the book. And it all turns out just as Evan had predicted. The book is a bestseller; Jake's book tour is standing room only everywhere he goes; he meets with an A-list director about a film deal; and he gets his turn on Oprah's couch.

His book tour takes him to Seattle where he's to be on the local blowhard's radio show. Before he goes on the show, he gets a four-word email: "You are a thief." To say Jake is unsettled is an understatement. This is what he has been dreading. He goes on the show which turns out to be a bit of a disaster. (The host really is an ignorant blowhard.) But he meets Anna, the blowhard's assistant who had scheduled him for the show. She turns out to be the love of his life.

Jake returns to New York. He continues to get increasingly threatening emails and texts accusing him of theft all of which he tries to ignore. Meantime, he's texting daily, incessantly, with Anna and soon she flies to New York to visit him. Soon after that, they are living together and Anna transforms his life, all for the better. Everyone, including Jake's parents, loves Anna which is reason enough for them to marry. Jake has never told Anna about the threats he is receiving and he continues to keep the secret as he also continues to try to determine who is threatening him. His investigations take him from New York to Vermont to Georgia, from a local tavern and a lawyer's office, and finally to a creepy campground and a cemetery. He never figures it out.

But I did. Maybe it's all those years of reading mysteries and thrillers and matching wits with their writers, but as soon as the relevant character was introduced in the plot, I knew immediately who it was and how this was all going to play out. I read the rest of the book while searching for the clues that would prove me right and they were there, hiding in plain sight. Feeling certain of how it was going to end did not spoil the reading experience for me. In fact, it might have enhanced it. Korelitz has constructed a particularly twisty plot. I have not read her books before, but I would say that she is not a writer who has a problem coming up with ideas. She has given us a mystery/thriller combined with a love story that is told through well-developed fascinating characters. All in all, it's a winner. One that will most likely be a bestseller, a major film, and may even land her on Oprah's couch.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

                                                                                                           

Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind by Kermit Pattison: A review

 

I got this book as a sort of companion to another book that I read earlier this year, The Sediments of Time by Meave and Samira Leakey. The books cover basically the same territory, literally, the Great Rift Valley of East Africa where the search for fossil human ancestors has been most intense. And they reference many of the same personalities, several of what we might term the rock stars of the fossil search. Meave's book is a memoir that, of course, focuses mainly on her family, the Leakeys, who are the First Family of the paleoanthropology world, but it also gives credit to the work of such people as Don Johanson of Lucy (Australopithecus afarensis) fame and Tim White who was also present at the Lucy find and at the 1994 find of what is, for now, the oldest known possible human ancestor at 4.4 billion years, nicknamed Ardi (Ardipithecus ramidus). Kermit Pattison's book focuses primarily on White and the Ardi find.

Tim White actually began his fossil-hunting career in Africa working with Richard Leakey. But soon enough his relationship with Leakey ruptured as both White and Leakey were intolerant of anyone who disagreed with them about the interpretation of their finds. When they disagreed with each other, that was the end of that! That is a recurring theme in Pattison's book. White, it seems, eventually falls out with almost everyone in the paleoanthropology world. One of the reviews that I saw of the book memorably describes White as Indiana Jones meets Tony Soprano. It is not an inapt description.

After his work with Leakey, White went on to work with Donald Johanson at the site in Hadar, Ethiopia where the famous Lucy was found in 1974. But eventually that relationship, too, ended in a Big Bang that in Pattison's telling left the two men virtually hating each other and seeking to undermine each other's work throughout the years.

One of the main takeaways from Pattison's book is the size of the egos of the men who spend their lives hunting fossils. And they are all men, "Fossil Men." Very few women make appearances in this book, although Mary and Meave Leakey do get a mention at least. It seems almost a prerequisite for the job that the paleoanthropologist be absolutely convinced of the rightness and righteousness of his position, his interpretation of events. Once he settles on a narrative, he leaves no room for dissension. We see this again and again as we follow the career of Tim White. He is a prickly personality that is completely ruthless in his search for new fossils. He is undeterred by war and pestilence and a whole army of intellectual enemies. The years that he spent in Ethiopia looking for ancient fossils were years when that country was ripped by civil war and conflict with neighbors and it was not uncommon for the exploration team to find itself in the middle of gunfights between the Issa and Afar tribesmen. The team actually lost some of its members to that conflict. 

On the other hand, the personality that generated so many enemies also spawned an army of loyal friends. And when Tim White was your friend, he was your friend all the way. He was unusual among many of the scientists who worked in the region in that he was dedicated to training Ethiopians to be fossil hunters and to care about and protect the unique heritage of their region. Over the years, he trained many of the people who are now leaders of the profession in Ethiopia and who are heads of the museums where the fossils have been stored. Ethiopia has also tightened many of its laws in order to protect these precious fossils from exploitation. It's unlikely that any of those fragile fossils would now be allowed to undertake a six-year tour that Lucy did from 2007 to 2013. Today such tours employ casts of the fossils. 

Kermit Pattison is a journalist and he is particularly good at explaining in an understandable way how the scientists are able to interpret the bones that they find and how they painstakingly build a picture of how ancient species are interrelated and how one may have evolved into another. That's often been represented as a tree, but current knowledge seems to run more to an image of a bush with very many branches, some of which never intersect. His ability to explicate all of this, especially when he explains why one little bump on the foot of Ardi led scientists to conclude that she was upright and bipedal at least for part of the time, is just fascinating and easy enough for a layperson to follow. Very seldom does he allow himself to get lost in the weeds of minutiae of his subject. The narrative flows, the characters are memorable, and the story is nothing less than the story of the history of our species. What more could one ask of a book?

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Poetry Sunday: To Daffodils by Robert Herrick

Gardening is a hobby, some might say an obsession, of mine. I live in an area with a growing season that is virtually year-round so there's always something going on in the garden and I spend a lot of time attempting to grow many different kinds of plants. Many plants thrive here and it is very rewarding to watch them grow. But there are some that I've tried to grow that have been a bust. Among those failures are daffodils. You might think daffs would be easy. I mean you can see them growing wild around old abandoned home sites with no one to care for them, but there is something about the heat and humidity here, or maybe it's the soil, or perhaps a combination of both that is inimical to the growth of daffodils. I plant them and they bloom for one year and then they disappear, so I've pretty much given up on them and moved on to other things.

Poets love daffodils, of course. One always thinks of William Wordsworth, but Robert Herrick was fond of them, too, and he saw that we share with the blooms of the daffodils a relatively brief time on this Earth. All the more reason to bloom profusely while we have the chance.

To Daffodils

by Robert Herrick

Fair Daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early-rising sun
Has not attain’d his noon.
Stay, stay,
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the even-song;
And, having pray’d together, we
Will go with you along.

We have short time to stay, as you,
We have as short a spring;
As quick a growth to meet decay,
As you, or anything.
We die
As your hours do, and dry
Away,
Like to the summer’s rain;
Or as the pearls of morning’s dew,
Ne’er to be found again.

This week in birds - #451

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

Black Skimmers in the late evening sun photographed on the beach at Rockport, Texas.

*~*~*~*

Once again federal scientists are predicting an "above average" Atlantic hurricane season. This follows the record season in 2020 when there were 30 named storms. The scientists say there could be 13 to 20 named storms this year with 6 to 10 being hurricanes and perhaps 3 to 5 reaching category 3 status or above.

*~*~*~*

And on the other side of the continent, severe drought, made worse by climate change, is ravaging the West. Heat and shifting weather patterns have also intensified wildfires and sharply reduced water supplies across the Southwest, Pacific Coast, and North Dakota.

*~*~*~*

A new study warns of "zombie fires." With a changing climate, fires in northern forests that smolder through winter and erupt again in spring are expected to become more common.

*~*~*~*

And now we are seeing climate refugees. Storms, floods, and wildfires, in addition to conflicts, caused the displacement of 40.5 million people around the world in 2020.

*~*~*~*

The Chimney Swifts have returned to our area. I hear their twittering throughout the day when I am in the garden and I often hear them in the chimney when I'm sitting in my living room. Swifts around the world often have trouble finding nesting places because of the loss of their preferred habitat, but in Britain, they are getting some help. A product called "bird bricks" is being used in construction projects to provide a safe niche for the birds' nests.

A swift emerging from a bird brick.

*~*~*~*

Marine iguana on Floreanna Island in the Galapagos.

The actor Leonardo DiCaprio is teaming with conservation groups in an effort to rewild the Galapagos Islands and other Pacific islands in Latin America. DiCaprio has pledged $43 million to the campaign to conserve the islands. One of the projects that the money will fund is the restoration of Floreanna Island, home to 54 threatened species. They will reintroduce thirteen locally extinct species including the Floreanna Mockingbird, the first mockingbird described by Charles Darwin in his exploration of the islands.

*~*~*~*

One thing they won't be able to conserve is Darwin's Arch. The famous rock formation in the Galapagos collapsed into the sea this week as a result of natural erosion.

The famed arch before its collapse.

*~*~*~*

A comprehensive new analysis has found that twenty companies are responsible for producing more than half of all the single-use plastic waste in the world, fuelling the climate crisis and creating an environmental catastrophe. Among the global businesses responsible for 55% of the world’s plastic packaging waste are both state-owned and multinational corporations, including oil, gas, and chemical companies.

*~*~*~*

If you are looking for good books about wildlife and our relationships with them, look no further: The Revelator has you covered. Here is a list of ten new books about wildlife.

*~*~*~*

The International Energy Agency urges investors to refrain from funding new oil, gas, and coal supply projects in order to help the world reach net-zero emissions by mid-century. 

*~*~*~*

Arizona's Republican Attorney General has filed a lawsuit framing the climate crisis as a nativist issue, absolving natives and blaming migrants for environmental degradation. Are you as touched as I am by his concern for the environment? 

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And here's a prickly subject: It seems there is a black market in cacti. There is a flourishing illegal international trade in the plants and people are digging them up from deserts, including endangered and protected plants, and selling them to the highest bidder.

*~*~*~*

Brood X cicadas are emerging in the East but it appears they are absent from some areas where they would normally be expected.

*~*~*~*

What if we can't save everything in Nature? How do we choose where we will apply our efforts to conserve? The National Park Service is being forced to make such choices. Park ecologists are performing triage, deciding what to safeguard and what to let go.

*~*~*~*

The Revelator online magazine is celebrating its fourth anniversary and it shares ten important things they have learned in those years.

*~*~*~*

We know some of the problems that invasive plant and animal pests create in our country, but this is a worldwide problem. In Africa, invasive pests could cost the agricultural sector $3.5 trillion per year, according to a new study released this week.

*~*~*~*

The toxicity of 381 pesticides used in the U.S. has more than doubled for pollinators and aquatic invertebrates over the last two decades, according to a new study. Toxicity actually dropped for birds, fish, and mammals, but this made way for greater use of neonicotinoids and pyrethroids, deadly for insects of all kinds.

*~*~*~*

There has been a drastic drop in Arctic wildlife populations and that seems almost entirely due to the effects of global climate change.

*~*~*~*

A new study shows that sharks have their own built-in GPS guidance system that uses Earth's magnetic field.

*~*~*~*

On Thursday a group of scientists urged the Biden administration to restore legal protections for gray wolves, saying their removal earlier this year was premature and that states are allowing too many of the animals to be killed. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dropped wolves in most of the lower 48 states from the endangered species list in January. The decision was among more than 100 actions the previous administration took related to the environment that President Joe Biden ordered reviewed after taking office.

*~*~*~*

A colony of monkeys has lived for about seventy years in urban south Florida. Researchers at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) say they have now traced the colony’s origins to the Dania Chimpanzee Farm. The South Florida SunSentinel reported on Wednesday there was a monkey escape from the farm in 1948, with most of the monkeys recaptured. But not all of them. Today there are around forty of the animals living wild in the area.

The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie: A review

 

This book was published just over five years ago but somehow it only came to my attention recently. I'm glad that it finally found me because it was an absolute joy to read.

The title of the book might lead you to think that it is about iconoclastic sociologist/economist Thorstein Veblen (1857 - 1929) if indeed you had ever heard of him. Those of you who have ever had an introductory course in sociology as I did long ago will no doubt remember him as the coiner of phrases like "conspicuous consumption" and the author of the book The Theory of the Leisure Class. He had considerable influence on later economists like John Kenneth Galbraith. He also had influence on Melanie, the mother of our protagonist here. She named her daughter Veblen after Thorstein who was a distant relative.

Our Veblen is a thirty-year-old woman living in Palo Alto, California in an old cottage that she has rescued and renovated. Veblen describes herself as a "freelance self." She never finished college. She goes from one low-level administrative job to the next but spends her real passion on the translation work that she does for something called the Norwegian Diaspora Project in Oslo. Thorstein was a Norwegian-American and our Veblen is obsessed with him and with learning more about him which seems to have been the impetus for her learning Norwegian. 

Veblen's other activities include reading, biking, and compiling trivia about squirrels, her other obsession. She takes daily antidepressants to keep her on an even keel. And, oh yes, she's about to be married. Her best friend, Albertine, is a Jungian analyst in training and she worries that Veblen's husband-to-be will not be able to tolerate her quirky personality in the long term.

Veblen's mother is a total narcissist and a hypochondriac, not a good combination. In her mind, everything is about her. She has a gentle, long-suffering husband, Veblen's step-father. Her father is in a psychiatric institution.

Veblen's quirkiness reveals itself most clearly in her passion for squirrels. She talks to them and believes that they communicate with her. She doesn't hear squirrel voices exactly; it is more like squirrel telepathy. There is one squirrel in particular that she believes follows her around. She encounters him wherever she goes, even in other cities.  The husband-to-be, Paul, on the other hand, has a very low tolerance for squirrels and wants to trap them all and release them in the forest. He is a research physician on a grant from Hutmacher Pharmaceuticals testing a device he has invented that is meant to treat brain injuries in soldiers in combat. It's a kind of hole puncher for the skull. Paul dreams of fame and fortune as a result of his invention.

Both Paul and Veblen are stunted in different ways by the childhoods they endured (Paul was the son of hippies who gave most of their attention to his disabled brother.) and this book is, in large part, a story of their struggle to escape the demons of their childhoods and build a productive and fruitful life together. In the process, it also manages to ding Big Pharma; tell us maybe more than we ever wanted to know about squirrels and Thorstein Veblen; present us with meditations on mental illness, family pathos, the nature of work and marriage; and often make us smile and shake our heads at the eccentricities and charm of a protagonist who marches to a different drummer.

I had never read Elizabeth McKenzie before. This is her second novel and the language of it is such a delight. It has a musical quality and is full of words one doesn't often see in print. She makes the jargon of economics and biology zing. They become memorable and fun to read. McKenzie also has a way of seeing the world and her characters from a different angle, not our standard and boring way of looking at things. The book has a lot of twists in the plot and a very satisfying ending. I loved Veblen and I can't think of a single thing about her or this book that I would change.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars    

Blogger problems

There seem to be continuing problems with Google's Blogger platform. I experienced problems with publishing last Friday and I know other users of the platform did as well. Since then, I've been unable to comment on some of the blogs that I regularly visit. I'm not sure what is the source of the problem, but apparently, Google is working to fix it. If you have experienced such problems with my blog, I can only apologize. I have no control over that and can only hope that it is soon fixed.

Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark: A review

 

Biographies and memoirs are not really my favorite reading, but one of my goals for this year is to diversify my reading and free myself of some of my reading prejudices. Such as my prejudice against biographies and memoirs. When I saw a notice of the publication of this biography of Sylvia Plath, it seemed like a worthy addition to meeting my goal. I've long been interested in Plath's life, poetry, and the tragic end to her life, so this was a good opportunity to learn more about all that.

And learn more about it I did! Heather Clark's 1,000-page biography of her is nothing if not exhaustive, and sometimes exhausting to read. She details the most complex and intricate events of her subject's daily life. At some points, it seems as though she is providing a daily, or even hourly, blow-by-blow account of Plath's complicated life.  It took me just about a month to read it, reading a bit on most days. 

Clark's focus is clearly stated in the subtitle of her book: It is the life and art of Plath, whereas it often seems that previous biographies of her (and there have been plenty) have been mainly focused on her marriage to Ted Hughes and her suicide. The writer has attempted a more full-bodied and straightforward telling of her story, perhaps showing how everything evolved.

Clark's treatment of Plath's life is evenhanded and seldom strays into the statement of opinions. A prime example of that is the portrait she paints of the poet's mother, Aurelia. Aurelia had sometimes been vilified by those writing about her daughter. She was blamed as the source of Sylvia's depression and psychological problems but Clark gives her her due for all the support she gave and tried to give to her through the years. This included financial support right up until Plath's death at 30 and the moral support and guidance that she attempted to provide. Sylvia's father, Otto, whom she adored as a child, died when she was eight years old, leaving Aurelia with two children (Sylvia had a younger brother named Warren.) to support and raise on her own. This was in the 1950s and single mothers were stigmatized even more than they sometimes are today. Fortunately, Aurelia had her parents who moved in and provided help and babysitting services while she worked as a teacher. Still, she must have had a difficult time in those years, and Clark does not sugarcoat it. 

We learn that Sylvia was evidently always quite popular with her peers and had many friends as she was growing up. This continued in her years at Smith College where her titanic ambition as a poet and fiction writer had full reign. She had been writing for most of her life and she displayed almost unimaginable persistence in attempting to get published. For example, she had more than fifty rejections before, in 1950, Seventeen magazine accepted a short story for publication. Throughout her life, she continued to have rejection after rejection of her poetry and stories, but she stubbornly persevered, resubmitting her rejected work to different publishers and in many instances, she finally succeeded.

Plath felt tremendous pressure to succeed, but what was the source of that pressure? In Clark's telling, it seems mostly self-imposed. She felt an extraordinary need to excel in all that she did. It was during her years at Smith that she first attempted suicide and she was subsequently sent to a hospital for the mentally ill where she received electroshock therapy which terrified her and would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Sylvia completed her years at Smith and was given a Fulbright Scholarship to Cambridge where she met Yorkshire-born poet Ted Hughes who would become her husband. During all the Smith years and beyond, Sylvia led a busy, some might say frantic, social life. Clark gives a lot of time to relating her dating experiences. There were many days, according to the writer, when she would have three or four dates with different men within the same day. She was evidently in high demand by the opposite sex. Once Sylvia decided to give up her virginity, she purchased a diaphragm which gave her some relief from concern about an unwanted pregnancy and she pursued sexual affairs with many different men. She was promiscuous, which if widely known, could have caused her to be ridiculed in the socially conservative '50s, but, as it was, she continued to be in demand by men for dates and to enjoy the female friendships that were so important to her. 

Once she met Ted Hughes, the frantic dating basically stopped. She was immediately attracted to him and he to her. They shared a single-minded devotion to their art and an unshakeable belief in their respective talents. They soon married and shared six years together during which their two children, Frieda and Nicholas, were born. Then it all fell apart when Hughes had an affair with Assia Wevill. They subsequently separated in 1962. Sylvia struggled with depression and with caring for two small children while continuing to try to write. Indeed she wrote some of her most acclaimed poetry during this period.

The winter of 1962-63 was the coldest in a century in London. It was a miserable time, a time of desperation that may have further contributed to Plath's depression. In February 1963 she had apparently reached her limit. She put her children to bed and sealed herself in the kitchen with the gas stove. She turned on the gas and put an end to her short life. Her blazing art continues to live on.

Since her death, she has passed into legend and has been hailed as a feminist icon and a visionary but also a prisoner of her gender. She has been the source of incessant speculation about the cause of her clinical depression and other mental problems. With the benefit of hindsight and of increased knowledge about such issues, it seems likely that they were caused by some kind of chemical imbalance, something that might have been successfully treated with the medications available today.  

This was in many ways a mesmerizing read. Clark's scholarship in researching and relating Sylvia Plath's life and discussing her art was truly formidable. Her narrative entertainingly urges the reader along to make her way through what could have been a daunting book. At the end of the book, one is left with much curiosity satisfied but also stimulated to learn more about the writings of this tortured personality. Clark may occasionally go overboard in praising Plath's poetry and I could frankly have done with a little less emphasis on her dating life, but on the whole, I found the book intriguing and a worthwhile read which has perhaps helped to rid me of my prejudice against biographies.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Poetry Sunday: Inertia by Jane Kenyon

I'm sure we've all experienced moments like the one that Jane Kenyon describes in her poem. Moments when we are overcome by a feeling of lethargy, languor, torpor - whatever you might choose to call it. Kenyon calls it inertia. 

Inertia

by Jane Kenyon

My head was heavy, heavy;
so was the atmosphere.
I had to ask two times
before my hand would scratch my ear.
I thought I should be out
and doing! The grass, for one thing,
needed mowing.

Just then a centipede
reared from the spine
of my open dictionary. lt tried
the air with enterprising feelers,
then made its way along the gorge
between 202 and 203. The valley of the shadow
of death came to mind
inexorably.

It can’t be easy for the left hand
to know what the right is doing.
And how, on such a day, when the sky
is hazy and perfunctory, how does it
get itself started without feeling
muddled and heavy-hearted?

Well, it had its fill of etymology.
I watched it pull its tail
over the edge of the page, and vanish
In a pile of mail.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - May 2021

What's blooming in my zone 9a garden near Houston this month? Several things. Here are some of them. 

If it's May, then of course the old southern magnolia must be in bloom.

On the patio, a couple of pots of pentas brighten things.  Here's #1.

And here's #2.

And helping them brighten things is this pot of Helianthus 'Brown-eyed Girl.'

'Julia Child' rose with an insect friend.

'Peggy Martin' rose.

Ever-dependable 'Lady of Shalott' rose.

My antique polyantha rose, 'Caldwell Pink.'

Some of the daylilies are blooming. Here's a beauty next to the goldfish pond.

More daylilies, the variety name unfortunately lost.

For the first time, this cestrum which I've had for many years was killed back to the roots in last winter's freeze, but it has recovered and is beginning to bloom.

Coreopsis in a tangle of blooms next to my Japanese maple.

I've just added this coreopsis, 'Uptick Gold & Bronze,' to the garden. I have high hopes for it.

This petunia that reseeded itself in one of my beds is full of blooms.

These four o'clocks obviously cannot tell time. It was 6:30 and they still were not open.

This one next door was doing a little better.

Some of the bird-planted sunflowers that I've left to grow are now blooming.

Near the front door entry, this pot of purple and white pinwheel petunias brightens its corner.

Also near the front entry is this pot of starcluster white pentas along with some lemon coral sedum and a 'Red Sensation' cordyline.

This dark blue plumbago is blooming next to the patio.

I lost one of my hydrangeas in the February deep freeze. This one died back to the roots, but it has recovered and is beginning to bloom.

The oakleaf hydrangea always dies back in winter but doesn't miss a beat once spring arrives. The scent of those blossoms is heavenly.

The lantana is beginning to bloom.

And so is the autumn sage, here in dark red.

This autumn sage is 'Hot Lips' which starts out red and gradually goes white as the blooms age.

Here's another autumn sage in raspberry pink. The hummingbirds love all colors and visit the plants repeatedly throughout the day.

White yarrow blooms by the pond.

The old species canna is beginning to bloom.

And so is this newer yellow one.

The 'Blue Mirror' delphinium was just added this spring and hasn't really taken off yet, but it is providing a few blooms.

The native butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, which I grow in pots is blooming.

And finally, here is a sweet little viola that reseeded itself in one of the pots of Asclepias.

Spring in Southeast Texas has been unusually cool and pleasant this year. We keep waiting for those 90 degree days but they haven't hit us yet. No doubt Mother Nature will make up for that lapse later on. 

I hope things are pleasant where you are. Thank you for visiting. Happy Bloom Day!

(And thank you, Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting us each month.) 

This week in birds - #450

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

White Ibises in flight photographed off South Padre Island, Texas.

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An Environmental Protection Agency report that was delayed for years by the previous administration was released on Wednesday and the news is not good. The report documents the changes that are a signal that climate change caused at least partly by human activity is intensifying and negatively affecting public health and the environment.

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In other EPA action this week, the agency ordered a controversial refinery on St. Croix in the Virgin Island to be shut for 60 days because it poses an imminent threat to human health. The refinery had been permitted to open by the previous administration. Since February, it had showered oil on local residents twice, spewed sulfuric gases into the surrounding area, and released hydrocarbons into the air. 

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New research indicates that a third of global food production will be at risk from the effects of climate change by the end of this century if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at their current rate.

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Thousands of seabirds are caught by fishing nets and hooks every year, helping to push some species toward extinction. What if there were some way to warn the birds away from the nets and hooks?

Well, here is something that is being tried. These googly eyes attached to buoys are intended to scare the birds away from the area. If I were a bird they would certainly scare me! 

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A new study has made the alarming discovery that air pollution from farms contributes to almost eighteen thousand deaths a year in the United States.

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Chinese greenhouse gas emissions now account for 27 percent of the global total while the United States accounts for 11 percent. China's total surpassed those of the United States plus the rest of the developed world in 2019.

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An alarming result from a recent study showed that the breast milk of American women contains toxic chemicals, creating a potential threat to newborns' health. The chemicals are polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances that are called "forever chemicals" because they do not naturally break down and they have been shown to accumulate in humans.

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A recent expedition spent 24 days clearing 10 miles of shoreline in the atolls and islands of the Papahānaumokuākea marine national monument in the remote Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The team, led by a non-profit with support from state and federal agencies, collected 94,472 pounds of marine debris, aiming specifically for waste that poses an entanglement hazard to animals, such as derelict fishing gear, also called “ghost nets.”

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This beautiful creature is a Blue-throated Hillstar. The hummingbird was only discovered in Ecuador in 2017 and it has been at risk from the moment it was identified. Its habitat is under threat and the race is on to try to preserve it and save the bird.

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A new analysis has found that an area of forest the size of France has regrown around the world over the past 20 years, showing that regeneration in some places is paying off. Nearly 59m hectares of forests have regrown since 2000, providing the potential to soak up and store 5.9 gigatons of carbon dioxide – more than the annual emissions of the entire US.

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In another sign of the times, the city of Miami has appointed a chief heat officer who will be charged with putting together a task force to address the problem of rising temperatures. Last June, the city reported its hottest temperatures on record and there were dozens of heat-related deaths reported during the year. 

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Kenya has begun its first national wildlife census. The census will run until July, with rangers, researchers, and community members counting animals on land and from helicopters. The aim of the project is to aid conservation and identify threats to the country's vast but threatened wildlife populations.

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The Masked Bobwhite, native to southern Arizona and northern Mexico, was once thought to be extinct, but the critically endangered bird is making a comeback in Arizona thanks to a decades-long recovery effort.

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Incredible. The National Park Service, wanting to thin a population of bison in the Grand Canyon National Park that it says is harming the environment, opened a lottery to let a dozen skilled shooters kill bison on park grounds. Within 48 hours of opening the application portal, the NPS had received 45,040 applications for the 12 slots.

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Scientists are attempting to understand the implications of the effects that climate change is having on the world's largest ice sheet, Antarctica, and what that means for the threat of sea-level rises. The uncertainty regarding what it means is very worrisome to these scientists.

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Interestingly, birds responded to the lessening of noise pollution because of the pandemic by becoming quieter themselves. They sang more softly.

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We need to do more to help the arachnid species of the world. Spiders are enormously important to a healthy ecology, but it seems that we have a poor understanding of how they are faring and we need to overcome any biases and fears we may have in order to better protect them.

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Spain has approved a new clean energy climate bill in its efforts to become climate neutral by 2050 at the latest. But critics say the new law will not be enough. 

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The country has a new national park, the New River Gorge in West Virginia which became a national park and preserve on December 27, 2020. Many are delighted by the designation but some locals are worried that the area is not ready for the national spotlight.

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The Velvet Scoter is a diving duck that is endemic to the Caucasus area of Europe and Asia. It was once thought to be completely extinct but a recent study showed that a small population of 25-35 breeding pairs still exist. The long-term survival of the species is in jeopardy.

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According to the first complete assessment of how Nature-based solutions can combat the climate and biodiversity crises in the UK, regenerating native woodland, restoring grassland, and rewetting peatland should be priorities. This was the conclusion of more than 100 ecologists who examined how all kinds of landscapes – from urban to agricultural to coastal – could be enhanced to maximize carbon retention, biodiversity, and human wellbeing.

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Margaret Renkl writes in praise of the miraculous cicadas.