A Would You Like to Ride in My Beautiful Balloon Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Another week here at Casa Kittling where everything has gone well. Denis likes his new "physioterrorist" (physiotherapist) and will be going to see him three times a week. We've repositioned hummingbird feeders. I've watched a great-tailed grackle figure out how to take a bath and a shower all at the same time in one of our solar fountains. We've moved soaker hoses around to give our Tombstone roses and other plants a good drink. Speaking of which, I just found out that we may have a chance for some rain this weekend, so maybe moving the hoses around had something to do with that. (You know... on the same level as washing and polishing your car and then it pours down rain the next day.)

I've been going through my photos for a post that I intend to schedule for next week, and I came across ones that Denis and I took in 2003. For my birthday and our wedding anniversary, Denis gave me a hot air balloon ride. It was fabulous! The gondola even had a big sign on it saying "Happy Birthday  Happy Anniversary."

Notice the sign-- it's all for me!

Looking like a big exclamation mark in the sky mirrored how I felt.

That was definitely one of the absolute best birthday presents ever.

Have a good weekend, and enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Secrets in the stacks.
• Close reading is for everyone.
• "Super-vision" contact lenses let wearers see in the dark-- even with their eyes closed.
• The clues, the clueless, and the critics: appreciating Clue.
• Museums are cautiously optimistic as some federal grants are reinstated.
• As culture wars flare at libraries, a Nevada lawmaker seeks to move book ban decisions to the courts.
• Most of the books pulled from the Naval Academy library are back on the shelves in the latest DEI turn.
• Here's how social media is influencing how authors promote their books.
• The “Heat Index” summer guide newspaper insert published by the Chicago Sun-Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer that contained AI-generated misinformation and reading lists full of books that don’t exist was created by a subsidiary of the magazine giant Hearst.
• Anthony Horowitz: Children can't read long books any more.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• The Oseberg tapestry: Viking Age artwork from a boat burial that may depict the Norse tree of life.
• Hikers stumble across treasure hidden on a mountain trail in the Czech Republic, sparking an investigation into its origin.
• Anglo-Saxons buried a mysterious vessel over a millennium ago. Archaeologists have discovered the contents of the Bromeswell bucket at Sutton Hoo. More from Live Science.
• The Smithsonian has transferred rare 2,300-year-old silk manuscripts to China.
• A 2,300-year-old gold ring found in Israel was probably buried by a betrothed girl.
• An ancient Roman wooden water pipe made from hollow tree trunks have been unearthed beneath a street in Belgium.
• A King Arthur site in England is actually 4,000 years older than archaeologists originally thought.
• See the rare medieval boat discovered over 18 feet below sea level in Barcelona.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• A young Cooper's hawk learned to use a crosswalk signal to launch surprise attacks on other birds. (For about three years, we had a young Cooper's hawk stopping by to take a bath in a birdbath in our back garden. Never heard a peep from any other bird while it was here.)
• Here's a compilation of submitted cat videos that benefit cat shelters across the U.S.
• A new study suggests that clownfish shrink down their bodies to survive ocean heat waves.
• A new, shape-shifting "flapjack" octopus has been discovered in the deep sea off the coast of Australia.
• A 33-inch-long "woolly" mountain rat was caught on camera for the first time ever.
• Humpback whales can't see as well as scientists thought, and it might explain why they keep getting tangled in fishing gear.
• Ostriches, home dyeing, and the global plume trade.
• A devoted roadrunner named Chappy returns home every day to bring gifts to his human rescuer.

►The Wanderer◄

• How the largest volcanic eruption in human history changed the world.
• Where was soccer invented? A new archaeological discovery suggests Scotland, not England, was the sport's birthplace.
• Arizona's Petrified Forest is changing what we know about the dawn of the dinosaurs.
• British Laurence Brown compares the grocery stores in the United States to those he grew up with in England.
• Jim Morrison's stolen gravesite statue has finally been found.
• A trove of Ice Age fossils buried in a Wyoming cave is rewriting our understanding of prehistoric animals.
• Two men have been convicted of chopping down England's beloved Sycamore Gap tree in an act of "mindless thuggery."
• A first-of-its-kind video captured the terrifying moment the ground tore apart during a major Myanmar earthquake.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• Charles Robert Jenkins, the American soldier whose fear of fighting in Vietnam led him to defect to North Korea. He stayed there for forty years.
• Freedom House Ambulance Service, the trailblazing Black paramedics, are the reason you don't have to ride a hearse or a police van to the hospital.
• Clara Adams, the woman who taught the world how to fly.
• Pioneering teenage parachuter Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick showed that courage isn't counted in pounds.
• Meet Ginevra de' Benci, the mysterious Renaissance muse immortalized in the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the Americas.
• See the forgotten paintings made by Jane Austen's older sister, Cassandra.
• The bouquinistes of Paris.
• Monet's stepdaughter, Blanche Hoschedé-Monet, painted breathtaking Impressionist masterpieces. They're finally getting the attention they deserve.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• Seven historical novels that explore the underbelly of the art world.
• Eight cold case mystery books to keep you up at night.
• Nine mind bending psychological thriller movies from the 1990s.
• Twenty-five riveting books for readers who are obsessed with Dan Brown.
• Eight modern twists on locked room mysteries.
• Fifteen must-read books about women in their 40s and 50s.
• Travel to France and Italy with these novels.
• The most anticipated crime fiction of Summer 2025.

That's all for this week! No matter how busy you may be, don't forget that quality Me Time curled up with a good book!