I just did a loop of the yard to make sure I’d brought in all my gardening junk and got a real treat. The area is alive with birds: robins, downy woodpeckers, cardinals, an oriole, and it looks like I have three nesting pairs in residence. The flycatchers are back – they’re using a two year old nest (refurbished, I’m sure) that is perched on top of a shutter, right under the eaves. I have to admit that I don’t know what kind of flycatcher they are although they’ve raised many clutches either on the shutter or in a nest a foot away from the back door. I guess it’s time for a little close observation with one of my bird books in my lap. The other two pair are easy to identify. The ruby-throated hummingbirds are nesting in the big lilac tangle again this year. Last year I got to watch a bit of the male’s mating display; this year (about 20 minutes ago) I got to watch the female perform her evening clean-up. Feaking (I hope it’s OK to use that word on an H-bird), some scratching, wing preening – she was sitting in the evening sun and the her iridescence was jaw dropping. Finally a black fly flew up my nose and I twitched – it was all over. There is a tufted titmouse nest in a hole in an old, dead apple tree. I was thinking about cutting what is left of the tree down last winter – I’m glad I didn’t.
Interesting name choice
I saw this on the way home this afternoon and grabbed my camera. If you can’t see the name on the roof sign, click the picture for a larger version. I guess Ebola, Genocide et Frères Driving School was too long for the sign, and Apocalyptic Death was a little over the top.
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. Rev. 6:8
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I hope that the owner of this concern is a huge Clint Eastwood fan who doesn’t pay much attention to dialog (or anything else) – it’s pretty tough to watch Pale Rider and not get the point – there’s a scene where Megan reads the verse quoted above. The alternatives are all pretty crazy – I’m left hoping it’s (rotting) tongue in (corpse-like) cheek. In any event, I think I’d want to speak to the driving instructor before I let him take my child out for a lesson.
Nadirian Currency
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In October of 1872 the Utopian Antarctic colony of Nadiria printed it’s first paper money. For the next twenty seven years, until the community’s strange disappearance in 1899, a variety of beautiful currency was produced. For the complete story, click over to Dream Dollars.
h/t Table of Malcontents – a great stop for all your Cthulhu/steampunk needs (for the next month and a half – word is that Wired is going to pull the plug on them in June). Refresh the page a couple times – there’s a title banner that features a school (shoal? rabble?) of fez-wearing krill.
More dog/wolf
More good comment on the dog/wolf post – I may have to look at adding a ‘greatest hits’ category to the Blogroll/Booklist/etc. series on the right…
As I was dashing off a reply to the latest comments, it occurred to me that I had read a pretty good fictional account of prehistoric wolf cub raising. I think it was in Elizabeth Marshall Thomas’ Reindeer Moon, but it could have been in The Animal Wife. I’m on the road right now – I’ll check when I get home and post an update. Both books are highly recommended – stories of prehistoric life written by someone who lived with hunter-gatherers. IIRC there was a major omission from both books, though – no giant hyenas! I have been very close to Siberian Tigers (couple feet away w/ a chain-link fence between us, up close and personal with wolves (also in captivity) – the one critter I didn’t want to get anywhere near was a spotted hyena. They are scary animals, as far as I’m concerned. And, before you ask, no, they are plenty intimidating on their own – I don’t think I need to invoke any Jungian race-memory or suchlike.
Update – the wolf passage was in Reindeer Moon.