Two for the price of one

I recently read two of Joseph Heywood's Woods Cop Mysteries back-to-back. It's actually been a while since I read them so my memory may be a bit hazy but here are my thoughts on them.

Buckular Dystrophy

This was the tenth book in the series. 

"Buckular dystrophy" is a term coined by conservation officers to describe a kind of addiction to killing deer, not for sport or food, but seemingly just because they are there and because they can. The action takes place during Michigan's two-week firearm deer season when it seems that a lot of hunters go just a little bit crazy. During this time, game wardens are on duty all the time and have no personal life to call their own. 

In this instance, Game Warden Grady Service inexplicably takes on longtime violator Limpy Allerdyce as his partner. But it is actually a genius move because nobody knows violators like another violator and Limpy leads him into a bizarre series of cases involving deer. 

I particularly like these stories for their interesting descriptions of the landscape and wildlife of the Upper Peninsula and of some of the characters that live there. Heywood does spin a good yarn.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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Chasing a Blond Moon

I actually read this book (which is #3 in the series) after the later book which I just described. I generally like to read series books in order but sometimes I just go rogue and that's what I did in this case.

The plot here was complicated and a bit hard for me to follow at times but here's what I can tell you about it: As an early book in the series, this one is still letting us get to know Grady Service. We learn that he's not just a man of the woods but also someone who knows a bit about wine and good food. He can cook! 

We learn that there is a woman in his life, Maridly Nantz. Also, he has a son from an earlier relationship, a son that he has only just learned about. The plot also involves a bit of politics, a state senator who is running for governor of the state. It is a heady mix and made for a robust tale. I think I will be reading more in this series.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars  

Poetry Sunday: Wild Geese by Mary Oliver

I'm a little late with this post but here's your poem for the week and it's one of my personal favorites. I hope you enjoy it, too.

Wild Geese

by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

This week in birds - #577

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

This little bird has recently been causing quite a stir in South Texas. It is a bird of South America called a Fan-tailed Warbler and birders are traveling from far and wide to enjoy its presence in this country.

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The West is in the middle of experiencing a two-decade-long drought. Trees tell the story.

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Even the Amazon rainforest is in drought.

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And yet animals and plants do adapt to the changing conditions, as the Meadow Brown butterfly shows.

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Archaeologists have discovered remnants of ancient cities in the Amazon.

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In Scotland, hotter and wetter weather has led to declines in some of their iconic bird populations.

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You might want to invest in some earplugs, especially if you live in the Midwest. We will have two broods of cicadas emerging this summer - a virtual cicadapocalypse!

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Ten more species could soon be added to the Endangered Species List. Among them is a big bumblebee.

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Here is the "Week in Wildlife" in pictures.

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Bird populations are declining across the continent.

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An avian flu panzootic (pandemic among animals) has struck hundreds of animal species and humans could be next.

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Many aquifers are declining, but data indicates that this trend could be reversed.

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How do birds see the world? Scientists claim they can now show us.

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Coyotes are making a comeback in Florida. They have also begun to recolonize some other areas from which they had been extirpated.

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There is a huge deep-sea coral reef off the Atlantic coast of the United States and now it has been mapped.

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This little beauty is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week. It is the exquisitely named Fiery Topaz, a resident of the treetops of the lowland Amazonian rainforest. Its status is not clear but the population is probably decreasing.

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Scientists are tracking the travels of a woolly mammoth by examining the layers of her tusks.

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A beluga whale escaped captivity and now he is a global celebrity.

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Why are craters appearing in Siberia's tundra? The mystery may have been solved.

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The Greenland ice cap is losing a lot of ice and that is cause for concern.

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Bats are extremely clever in the ways they have devised to stay safe from predators.

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It may look like trash to you but to a hermit crab, it can look like home.

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Everything in Nature is connected, including ants and lions.

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This Mongolian lake is pristine and yet some of its inhabitants are struggling.

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The Pacific Flyway, which stretches from Alaska to the tip of South America, is the migration route for millions of birds each year.

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Could IVF be the key to saving the endangered northern white rhino?

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Genomic research on blue whale carcasses has revealed that there is less inbreeding in the species than scientists would have expected. 

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Here are some amazing pictures from Nature, winners in a photography contest.

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Engraving on a 2,000-year-old knife in Denmark may be the oldest known example of runes. 

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A Canadian climate change denier has been arrested and charged with setting at least thirteen wildfires.

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Invasive fire ants are making their way through Australia. (I remember when they first made it to Texas several years ago and there was so much hype and scary headlines all over the place. We had their mounds in our yard for a while but I rarely ever see them anymore.) 

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And speaking of Texas, its "green grid" may get a test if the anticipated winter storm develops early next week.

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Wild agave, used in making mezcal, is getting harder to find.  

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She aspired to have the ugliest lawn. Do you think she succeeded?

The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak: A review

Okay, let me be honest here: It has been close to a month since I finished reading this book and so much has passed through my brain since then that I am struggling to remember the plot and characters. But at the time that I finished it, I gave it four stars so I know that I enjoyed it!

It's a spy novel as you might guess from the title and the cover. It features a CIA agent named Amanda Cole who is following in the footsteps of her father who was also a CIA agent. When we first meet her she is stationed in Rome and is pretty much bored out of her skull. Nothing's happening there to interest a CIA agent. Then, through the doors of the embassy walks a low-level Russian operative who is desperate to warn the Americans that a U.S. senator on a trip to Cairo is about to be assassinated.

Unfortunately, Amanda's superiors do not believe the Russian. They decide to take no action. But Amanda does believe him and so does a brash legendary spy named Kath. Amanda and Kath team up to try to get to the bottom of things.

They discover a complicated case involving foreign oligarchs, double agents, blackmailed CEOs, and illegal arms transfers. But most important to Amanda, she finds her deceased father's name in the notes that the senator had written before his death. What is the meaning of that?

There was quite a lot for me to like about this book, including the fact that it featured two really strong female characters. Moreover, the plot was a good one and the intersecting of the past and present timelines, on the whole, was handled well, I thought.

On the other hand, sometimes the plot bordered on the unbelievable, and the timelines jumped around unexpectedly, even within the same chapter. But when I'm enjoying a story, these trivialities don't bother me so much. And I did enjoy this one and would recommend it to anyone who, like me, enjoys spy novels.

Coming soon!

Thanks to all who have expressed their concern. We are doing well here and I hope to get back to my regular schedule of posting soon. Maybe even later today! So, stand by... 

Another update

Yes, no weekend update again. I apologize to my regular readers. My weekly schedule was severely disrupted. My husband spent a couple of days in the hospital. He's home now and he's fine, but that sort of reordered my priorities. Things are getting back to what passes for normal around here and I hope to get back to my normal routine in the coming week.     

Poetry Sunday: It sifts from leaden sieves by Emily Dickinson

(01/14: Oops! I thought I had already published this. Here ya go!)

No snow where I live here in Southeast Texas, but I remember the snows of my childhood and Emily Dickinson describes them perfectly.

It sifts from leaden sieves

by Emily Dickinson 

It sifts from leaden sieves,
It powders all the wood,
It fills with alabaster wool
The wrinkles of the road.

It makes an even face
Of mountain and of plain, —
Unbroken forehead from the east
Unto the east again.

It reaches to the fence,
It wraps it, rail by rail,
Till it is lost in fleeces;
It flings a crystal veil

On stump and stack and stem, —
The summer’s empty room,
Acres of seams where harvests were,
Recordless, but for them.

It ruffles wrists of posts,
As ankles of a queen, —
Then stills its artisans like ghosts,
Denying they have been.

This week in birds - #576

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

A Cooper's Hawk surveys my backyard, searching for a possible meal.

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2023 was the hottest year on record and 2024 may be even hotter.

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At the other end of the spectrum, Beijing experienced its coldest December since 1951. 

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Meanwhile, hotter, drier air in Europe is causing a greater wildfire risk and is affecting farmers' success in raising their crops.

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We have live oaks and red oaks in our yard and I can confirm that it has been a bumper crop year for acorns in Texas.

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Is this pyramid in Indonesia the world's oldest?

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Oil refineries on the Gulf Coast continue to pollute the air.

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Californians have been excited by recent sightings of orcas off their southern coast.

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This is the critically endangered Gorgeted Puffleg, a resident of the high Andes and it is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week.

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There is finally some good news regarding the status of Florida's manatees.

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In Britain, the government has a strategy for restoring the country's degraded temperate rainforest.

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Collisions with high-rise buildings kill up to a billion birds a year in America. Architects are working on ways to prevent that. 

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Logging has inflicted severe damage to the boreal forests of Ontario and Quebec. 

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Twenty-one U.S. species were declared extinct in 2023.

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As Siberia's ice is melting, information about its past is being revealed.

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Many of Africa's birds of prey are experiencing the collapse of their populations. Poisoning and persecution by humans is a major factor.

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North of Sydney, the largest male funnel-web spider, measuring more than three inches wide, has been found.

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There may have been another species of tyrannosaur living alongside Tyrannosaurus rex.

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At the Berlin Zoo, animals are getting unsold Christmas trees as snacks and playthings.

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Get ready for a rare celestial event: A total solar eclipse will occur on April 8.

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                                                                  The cause of much excitement in Seattle.

Seattle birders are atwitter over a rare visit from a Black-and-White Warbler. 

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Was 2023 the "beginning of the end" of the fossil fuel era? Some climate scientists think so.

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Australia's Buff-breasted Buttonquail has never been photographed but some researchers are hoping to change that.

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Uruguay is making strides in its green power transition from fossil fuels to wind energy.

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This is Jonathan the tortoise who lives on St. Helena Island. At (about) 191 years old, he is the world's oldest known living land animal.

Nope - update

Nope - still no weekend posts. I am still ill and this is getting quite boring. Hoping for a better week next week.

Update - Thanks to those who have expressed concern about my health. I did test positive for Covid and I'm getting the care that I need. I suppose I am getting better - just not as fast as I would like. The only positive thing to say about this is that I'm getting a LOT of reading done so there will be plenty of reviews to write in the coming days.