Poetry Sunday: Mother, Summer, I by Philip Larkin

Like the poet Philip Larkin, I, too, am summer-born and I confess an affinity for the season. I don't even mind the heat and humidity so much - well, as long as there is air conditioning or a shade to retire to! Moreover, I rather enjoy the drama of summer thunderstorms. Indeed summer days seem to me to be "emblems of perfect happiness."

Mother, Summer, I

by Philip Larkin

My mother, who hates thunder storms,
Holds up each summer day and shakes
It out suspiciously, lest swarms
Of grape-dark clouds are lurking there;
But when the August weather breaks
And rains begin, and brittle frost
Sharpens the bird-abandoned air,
Her worried summer look is lost,

And I her son, though summer-born
And summer-loving, none the less
Am easier when the leaves are gone
Too often summer days appear
Emblems of perfect happiness
I can't confront: I must await
A time less bold, less rich, less clear:
An autumn more appropriate.

This week in birds - #590

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

This white buffalo (bison) calf was born recently in Yellowstone National Park. For the Lakota people it is seen as the fulfillment of a prophecy. 

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The Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia has proved extremely deadly this year because of the extreme heat. At least 1300 people have died due to heat-related factors.

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For those who live in areas not strongly affected by city lights, the coming weeks offer some prime summer night sky viewing interest.

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A rise in wildfires is being driven by the effects of climate change.

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Many wild things have adapted to living in our cities.

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Colombia is a bird-watchers paradise and, now that a peace deal between warring parties there has been agreed to, it is expected that more birders will be making trips to the country.

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Marine life traffickers are busily smuggling corals into the country. 

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Traffickers are far from the only hazard faced by coral reefs; coral bleaching is doing untold damage to them, including to the Great Barrier Reef. Meanwhile, UNESCO is urging Australia to do more to protect the reef and preserve its status as a world heritage site.

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Scientists say that the potential melting of the ice sheets could mean a devastating rise in sea levels. Such rises could render some states such as Florida and California unlivable.

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Butterflies crossing the ocean? Apparently, the Painted Ladies can and have.

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The cute little Eared Grebe, a worldwide waterbird, is this week's American Bird Conservancy "Bird of the Week."

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A fatal fungus has devastated the world's amphibians but this fungus has a weakness - it can't tolerate heat. 

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Moose were introduced in Colorado in the 1970s and they have been very successful. Maybe too successful.

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Here's a look at the Housatonic River that runs through the Berkshire Mountains.

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And here's a look at the rhesus macaque monkeys that live on a small island off the southeastern coast of Puerto Rico.

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The Iberian lynx, with some help from conservationists, is making a comeback on the Iberian peninsula after almost becoming extinct there.

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As Afghans attempt to shift away from growing opium poppies to other field crops and fruit trees, climate change is making the transition difficult.

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Wild chimpanzees have been observed medicating themselves with wild plants.

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What finished off the last of the woolly mammoths? Scientists suspect a "freak event" was the culprit.

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The attempt to preserve a population of European wildcats in the U.K. has been buoyed by the recent birth of wildcat kittens in a national park there.

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What do six million antelope look like? There are pictures of that many animals recently migrating between national parks in South Sudan.

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Building a tunnel under Stonehenge does not seem like a very good idea to me but evidently that is going to happen. It has caused UNESCO officials to recommend putting the site on the list of world heritage sites that are in danger.

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A Bronze Age site has been discovered under a sports field in Cardiff.

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A Greater Flamingo is spending its summer in the Hamptons and is causing quite a stir among the human residents there.

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Pacific gray whales born in this century seem to be growing shorter than those of previous centuries. Suspicions are that it is related to the climate.

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Islands that were expected to be inundated by the rising seas of climate change surprisingly seem to be doing just fine.

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A new book details the subterranean microbial life that shapes our planet.

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The pandas are coming! The pandas are coming! The San Diego Zoo will soon be receiving two giant pandas from China, the first to enter this country in over two decades.

The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths: A review

The "outcast dead" of the title refers to the unknown dead, plague victims, lepers, or simply poor, mostly people who had no one to mourn them. The book begins with a litany for these outcasts and though archaeologist Ruth Galloway is not religious, she does appreciate the sentiment of recognizing the humanity of these dead. 

This entry in the archaeological mystery series features two mysteries. One dates to the Victorian era and the other actually occurs in the current day.

The Victorian-era aspect of the story revolves around a notorious murderer of children. In her latest dig, at Norwich Castle, Ruth has uncovered the bones of Jemima Green who was dubbed "Mother Hook" and who was hanged in 1867 for the murder of five children who were in her care.

Meanwhile, in the modern day, another child murderer, who has been dubbed the "Childminder," is abroad in the area. DCI Harry Nelson is investigating the case of three children who were found dead in their home. The first two were originally determined to have died from sudden infant death syndrome but the coroner has suspicions about the latest one. Then another child is abducted. Could there be two kidnappers/murderers or is one person behind it all?

Ruth and Harry, of course, have a history. They had had a brief affair, the result of which is a much-loved daughter, two-and-a-half-year-old Kate. Harry was married at the time of the affair and is still married to the same woman. That isn't going to change, but he adores Kate and revels in his relationship with her and the time he is able to spend with her. Meanwhile, his wife (who seems to be a saint!) supports him in this.

As a result of her archaeological finds, Ruth has become the reluctant star of a television series called "Women Who Kill" in which she works with a history expert, Professor Frank Barker. It is an extremely uncomfortable position for a woman who would prefer to work in anonymity.

The Druid Cathbad, one of my favorite characters in these books, had moved away to Pence by the end of the previous book in the series but he still manages to insert himself into this one. Moreover, we get to meet his adult daughter as well.

All in all, this was a worthy addition to a series that I have greatly enjoyed over the years. It combined my interest in archaeology (as a teenager, my career wish was to be an archaeologist) with getting to better know the main characters in the series, and it moved their personal relationships forward in a believable manner. There are several more entries in this series and I look forward to reading them all!

 

 

Poetry Sunday: June by John Updike

Best known as a novelist and essayist, John Updike also wrote poems, like this simple ode to June and summer which perfectly describes my own childhood summers.

June

by John Updike

The sun is rich
And gladly pays
In golden hours,
Silver days,

And long green weeks
That never end.
School’s out.
The time is ours to spend.

There’s Little League,
Hopscotch, the creek,
And, after supper,
Hide-and-seek.

The live-long light
Is like a dream,
and freckles come
Like flies to cream.

This week in birds - #589

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

A Pied-billed Grebe swims in the waters of Galveston Bay.

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There is a strong link between the decline in the number of insects and the use of pesticides. Detective work has revealed that agricultural insecticides are a prime suspect as a cause of the decline. Wildlife experts are urging a reduction in the use and toxicity of pesticides before it is too late.

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Labor and environmental groups are lobbying the Federal Emergency Management Agency to declare that extreme heat is a "major disaster." Moreover, researchers have found that deadly heat in Mexico and the U.S. is made 35 times more likely by global warming. 

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Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, more than 1,000 hajj pilgrims have died because of the heat. Around the world, the extreme heat has already affected billions of people.

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The Bald Eagle is widely believed to be our "national bird." Nope. In fact, we don't have such a designation.

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The Supreme Court has drastically weakened federal Clean Water Act protections. The Audubon Society is making a priority of working to protect the wetlands that are so essential to the overall health of the environment.

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Contraceptives to control the numbers of species humans consider to be pests? Scientists are working to make it happen.

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Here's a bit of good news: The deforestation of the Brazilian rainforest is declining for a variety of reasons.

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The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has managed to drastically cut plastic pollution of its lagoons.

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Do you know what a "grolar" is? Well, it is a hybrid of a grizzly and a polar bear and it is extremely rare. I suspect that is a good thing.

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Birding helped this man get through his chemotherapy treatment for cancer.

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Why did two lions swim across a crocodile-infested river?

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The farm bill passed by a House of Representatives committee fell short in advancing climate-smart agriculture and forestry policies.

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This little beauty is the Lazuli Bunting which was the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week for last week.

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A familiar sight in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the White Pelican is the ABC's Bird of the Week for this week.

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Our neighbor planet, Mars, was recently hit by a powerful solar storm.

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It seems that bees have been enlisted as crime fighters on a Virginia "body farm."

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Birds Canada will partner with other conservation organizations to create local protected areas in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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Easter Island is forced to deal with a flood of multinational plastic that washes up on its shores.

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Herpetologists are working to save nearly extinct giant salamander species found in Asia.

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What is the "mysterious monolith" that appeared in the Nevada desert? Naturally, some people are convinced it was left by visitors from outer space!

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The Eastern Band of Cherokees is opening a dispensary for cannabis. Predictably, North Carolina officials do not approve.

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And here's some more good news: The Iberian lynx has had its status changed from "endangered" to "vulnerable," a recognition of improvement in its numbers after a 20-year conservation effort.

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Wild Przewalski's horses have returned to Kazakhstan after having been absent for 200 years. These two were among the first group of seven to be returned. Forty more will be introduced there over the next five years.

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A 64-year-old tourist was killed by an elephant attack in Zambia this week. Such attacks are becoming more common due to pressure on the habitats and herds of the animals.

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How did the flounder end up with both eyes on one side? It's all down to evolution.

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Can mosquitoes help save rare Hawaiian birds from extinction? Conservationists are hoping so.

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Rewilding of one's garden areas is becoming more popular but officials in one Canadian city do not approve.

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Some bird species have not been sighted for decades. The authors of a new list of lost species are asking birders for their help in finding 126 "lost" species.

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A dinosaur dug up in Montana and named Lokiceratops may be a previously unknown species.

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The ancient monument of Stonehenge which was recently attacked by protestors has seen thousands of people gather there this week to celebrate the summer solstice.

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A baby moose that was stuck was saved by rescuers in Alaska this week while the mother moose watched.

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A pet donkey named Diesel escaped in California five years ago and has now been found living, apparently quite happily, with a herd of elk.

Catching up

I have been seriously negligent about posting reviews of books I have read recently. I blame it all on the broken foot. I mean it is really hard to type with a broken foot! In an attempt to get back up to date, here are mini-reviews of my recent reads:

           

The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman: This is number four in the Thursday Murder Club mysteries. Once again the crime-solving seniors - Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim - put their skills to work on solving a murder. The twist is that this time the victim was a friend of theirs, an antique dealer who was murdered after he was given an old box that turned out to contain heroin. The elderly detectives are not concerned about the heroin, only about who killed their friend. They are determined to find the answer and get justice. In fact, they won't rest until they do. My rating: 3 of 5 stars.

                             

The Hunter by Tana French: Tana French is one of my favorite writers of mysteries and her detective, Cal Hooper, is a favorite character. Cal took early retirement from the Chicago Police and moved to rural Ireland in search of peace. He found it but he's also found that murder can invade even this idyllic setting. Cal has made the teenager Trey Reddy his project as he tries to rescue her from her rather feral existence. In this one, Trey's wastrel father returns and he's brought with him an English millionaire and a scheme to find gold. What could possibly go wrong? My rating: 4 of 5 stars.

Findings by Mary Ann Evans: This is another in the archaeological mystery series featuring archaeologist Faye Longchamp. Faye is at home at Joyeuse, the family plantation in Florida that she is painstakingly restoring. Her joy at doing the work she loves is interrupted when thieves break into the home of her friend and mentor Douglas Everett and kill him. Inexplicably, they do not take any of the treasures in his home, but they do take Faye's notes from her latest dig that she had given to Douglas. What could be in those notes that the thieves/murderers wanted? My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Floodgates by Mary Ann Evans: This one finds Faye and her assistant Joe Mantooth working in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. They find a body in the house where they are working and the police at first think it is a victim of the hurricane but Faye begs to differ and shows them that the body was actually planted there. Faye and Joe must use their archaeological expertise to help solve the mystery of what was, in fact, a murder. My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Pay Dirt by Sara Paretsky: This is number 22 in Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski series and I've read all of them all the way back to 1982 and Indemnity Only! I've enjoyed every one of them (some more than others, of course) and V.I. is another of my favorite fictional detectives. In this one, Angela, V.I.'s protege who attends college at Northwestern, is concerned that one of her roommates, Sabrina, has gone missing and she asks V.I. to find her. She does find her, close to death at a drug house and that's where the trouble really begins. My rating: 3 of 5 stars. 

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And that brings us up to date to what I'm presently reading and that review will be posted in a few days. Stand by!

Poetry Sunday: A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns

When I first began to read poetry as a teenager, Robert Burns was probably my favorite poet. And this was perhaps my favorite Burns poem. These many years later it still rates high on my list.

A Red, Red Rose

by Robert Burns  

O my luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June;
O my luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun:
O I will love thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve,
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my luve,
Though it were ten thousand mile.

This week in birds - #588

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

Astronaut William Anders who took this most famous picture of our planet while aboard the Apollo 8 moon flight on Christmas Eve 1968 died this week. He was 90 years old and was piloting a small plane, flying alone, when the plane dived into the ocean northwest of Seattle. I suspect it might have been the way he would have wanted to go.

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A heat wave is spreading across the continent, affecting at least 250 million people. The El Niño system that helped to fuel the weather system is ending and that may bring some relief. The dangerous heat has affected as many as 1.5 billion people this year and air conditioning is not able to keep up.

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The waters off the New England coast have been hosting an unusually large number and variety of whales recently. 

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"Magic mushrooms" are something I remember from the '60s, but they are still out there and still working their "magic." Moreover, mushroom hunters are continually finding previously unknown species of the fungi.

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There are some very large catfish swimming in the waters of the Potomac. Ernie Robinson has caught many of them and returned them to the water. 

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Public lands are popular places for foragers. 

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A predator-proof fence completed on Moloka'i's North Shore provides a safe haven for seabirds to nest. 

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The Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act has provided for the planting of one million native trees to revive the fragile forest ecosystem of northern Peru.

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A black bear has been foraging for food in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. 

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It turns out that dead flowers can tell us quite a lot not only about the past but also about the future.

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Wombat burrows are a safe haven for many animals during wildfires.

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The cicadapocalypse has arrived in the East.

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And in the West, the birth of a white bison calf is cause for celebration among the Lakota Sioux.

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The Biden administration has plans to conserve 30% of U.S. land and water by 2030. His opponent in the upcoming election has quite a different idea.

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This 70-year-old Greater Flamingo at a British nature reserve has just laid her first egg. 

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Cocaine traffickers present a hazard to rare birds in Central American habitats.

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A catastrophic earthquake and tsunami are almost certainly in the Pacific Northwest's future at some point.

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Ancient genomes of the Maya are revealing which children they selected for sacrifice.

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Scientists are considering whether an ancient sea creature may have been one of our ancestors.

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Reports that the false mermaid-weed was extinct proved to be premature.

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And neither is the vaquita extinct - seriously endangered for sure but still swimming in Gulf of California waters.

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Przewalski's horses are once again roaming the grasslands of Kazakhstan.

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This is a hoodwinker sunfish, a rare species, that recently washed ashore in Oregon.

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Do individual elephants have names? A recent study suggests that they do and that other elephants call them by those names.

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Shark bites to humans are very rare but there has been a spate of them in Florida waters recently.

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That's Dr. Cat to you!

Poetry Sunday: The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

This may be my favorite of Mary Oliver's poems. It is certainly in the top five. And it is one of her most famous, deservedly so. I am particularly struck by the lines that say "I don't know exactly what a prayer is, but I know how to pay attention," and I can only smile my assent to that. Perhaps that is enough. The question she asks in the last lines may be the most important one that we all have to answer: What will we do with our one wild and precious life?  

The Summer Day

by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean—

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life?