You know how there are some things you love that drive other people crazy? One of those things for me has been happening the past few weeks. We've got our windows open, and when I retire in the wee hours of the morning, I love to lie in bed and listen to the mockingbirds singing their hearts out. I think it's beautiful, but it's a maddening racket for others.
The legs continue to improve. I'm hoping that my appointment at the wound care clinic this afternoon will be my last. This is the time of year to get out and enjoy all that spring has to offer here, and this cellulitis flare-up has really thrown a spanner, er... monkey wrench (sometimes it's obvious that I live with a Brit, isn't it?) into our Out & About plans.
Since my legs were doing so well, we decided to go to our favorite zoo Wednesday. You're going to be shocked when I post photos of our visit because this is the first time that the meerkats were all underground and not to be seen.
We still enjoyed our visit, as we always do, even though too many of the feckless took our governor's removal of all COVID-19 restrictions to heart. The zoo was much more crowded than it has been, and only about a third of the visitors were wearing masks. (Yes, include Denis and I in the masked category and feeling good about being fully vaccinated.) Several of the residents of the zoo were snoozing in the shade or the sun, but several others-- like the peacock in the photo-- seemed to be keeping an eye on me and every move I made. I don't know why, but I'm looking forward to sharing my photos with you in the near future.
Enjoy the links!
►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄
- On the narrative thrills of detective fiction.
- Why do so many novels feature golden retrievers?
- On the behavioral economy of the book world.
- Jeni's teams up with Dolly Parton on a delicious new ice cream flavor to benefit her Imagination Library.
- The Louvre makes their entire art collection of over 482,000 works available online for free.
- Want to improve your health? Listen to the sounds of the National Parks.
- What's left to write about strange and frightening houses?
- Why did Raymond Chandler hate Strangers on a Train so intensely?
►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄
- Is this the face of King Tut's father, Pharaoh Akhenaten?
- A 3,200-year-old mural of a knife-wielding spider god was found in Peru.
- The lost language of Easter Island.
- An over-the-top Mayan tomb reveals a man who lived a bit too large.
- A $1.6 million grant will support the digitization of Native American oral histories.
- Archaeologists in Turkey have unearthed a 2,500-year-old Temple of Aphrodite.
- How the wealthy of Pompeii protected their valuables.
- An ancient wine measuring table was unearthed in Jerusalem.
►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄
- This harried mother bear repeatedly tries to get her four feisty cubs across a busy street. (You know how it goes-- one of your kids always refuses to cooperate...)
- Like humans and mammals, octopuses may have two stages of sleep.
- Watch this puppy play with a lively butterfly. (I could watch this over and over. Wait a second... I have!)
- Why are black leopards so rare?
- Endangered mountain gorilla populations are growing.
- A German Shepherd named Ryker failed his service dog test but became an internet sensation.
- Trim, the seafaring cat.
- Undersea "hotels" are being deployed to save Sydney's endangered seahorses.
►Fascinating Folk◄
- Ten historic female scientists you should know.
- Nine women who helped win the American Revolution.
- The quarter-century reign of Mariachi Reyna.
- Ace aviator Ruth Law learned to fly even though Orville Wright refused to teach her.
- How Greenwich Village transformed Eleanor Roosevelt.
- Eliza Carpenter, the Black jockey who made horse racing history.
- Meet Sophia Kianni, young climate change changemaker.
- Female fire lookouts have been saving the wilderness for over a century.
►Crafty Gems◄
- A delectable stop motion animation showing the preparation of a LEGO layered chocolate cake.
- Simone Giertz built a thoughtful office chair to accommodate herself and her "needy" dog, Scraps.
- A dollhouse-sized exhibition will showcase mini creations by art-world giants.
►The Happy Wanderer◄
- Utah is getting two new state parks.
- Bangalore: crime and mystery in India's wild south.
- Here's how National Historic Landmarks can lose their status.
- Across Sussex, people were burned at the stake. The landscape is still haunted.
- Why are writers drawn to Texas as a setting?
►I ♥ Lists & Quizzes◄
- Seven historic dishes born from tough times that you can make at home.
- Can you guess which words are trademarked?
- The 100 most iconic book quotes.
- Twenty-three incredibly creative ways librarians spread the love of reading.
- Fifteen satisfying thrillers.
- The nineteen best book covers of March.
- Six books that explore how an act of violence can change families, communities, and generations.
- Travel around the world in the Roaring Twenties with these historical mysteries.
- The top ten matriarchs in fiction.
That's all for this week! Don't forget to stop by next Friday when I'll be sharing a freshly selected batch of links for your surfing pleasure.
Stay safe. Stay healthy. And don't forget to curl up with a good book!
I'm so glad to hear you're doing better, Cathy! It's so liberating, isn't it, when you can go outside and really start to enjoy life again. I can't wait to see your 'photos. And I actually like the sound of birds, too. Wonder if there are any birds at that Temple of Aphrodite...Guess I'll find out when I get there.
ReplyDeleteLet me know!
DeleteI hope your legs continue to improve so you can get outside. It's lovely where I am at the moment. 82-85 and everything is blooming. I desperately need to get out this weekend. I am going a little bit stir crazy. It's not really that I've been trapped. We just haven't had any plans for a few weeks and now I just want out. Outside, that is.
ReplyDeleteI didn't use the term "stir crazy" until I was in my thirties. Back in central Illinois, we referred to having "cabin fever" and "getting out and blowing the stink off" when we were cooped inside too long.
DeleteSo glad your legs are improving and you were able to get out for a visit to the zoo! I can't imagine how many British sayings one would have when living with a Brit. I find myself saying things after having watched a quantity of British TV.
ReplyDeleteHave a good weekend!
Living with Denis AND watching a lot of British telly, I find myself occasionally thinking that American accents don't sound right, and I do use slang that has most folks on this side of the pond scratching their heads. ;-)
DeleteGlad you got to get out and will look forward to more pictures!
ReplyDeleteI've gone through the photos and don't know whether to have one long post or two shorter ones!
DeleteGood to see that you guys are up and about, Cathy...that's a good sign. Folks in Houston have taken our governor's lifting of the veil seriously, too. I watched the baseball game on TV last night (our home opener) and was kind of shocked to see 28,000 inside the stadium, the vast majority of them maskless. And, apparently, no one was keeping people to their actual numbered seats, so half the crowd was packed tightly on the lower level spreading out from home plate down both baselines. I hope our numbers don't spike in two weeks, because that's what they'll be blaming it on.
ReplyDeleteI got a good laugh out of Chandler's letter to Hitchcock. Two very talented people, neither of them particularly known for their social skills. It's a nice glimpse into their relationship.
Many of the cities in the Phoenix metro area have ignored our governor's lifting of the veil, but I don't know how they'll be able to enforce anything.
DeleteI got a laugh out of Chandler's letter, too.
Oh, so you pick up British idioms. That is nice. Sometimes I think of Irish or British terms. And if I use them, I have to explain them. And then, even worse, I sometimes use Yiddish words, as my mother spoke Yiddish all the time. And I don't even think I'm using them with people who have no idea what I'm talking about.
ReplyDeleteAnd I do occasionally use religious utterings I learned from my father who was brought up in an Irish Catholic family.
Needless to say, I confuse everyone around me.
Yiddish is just such a great language: Nothing is as expressive as a Yiddish word in my view. And sometimes I can't quite explain the word.
Unfortunately, because of my name, sometimes people say things that are stereotypical about Jewish people in front of me.
Yiddish is such a rich language!
DeleteIf I let myself go, I could have many people scratching their heads when I speak. UK slang, farmer slang, Southern slang... all mixed together in a rather unique patois. However, I do like being understood, so I mostly confine my patois to interior monologues.
I've read so many mysteries set in the UK that I find the vocabulary and slang quite familiar. More than once I've been surprised during a book discussion when other readers say that they had trouble with the language, forgetting that they might not read as much set there as I do.
ReplyDeleteSo glad your progress report is so positive!
I have the same problem. Sometimes it's hard to remember that I had my own learning curve. I made my husband smile the other day when I asked him when was the last time he'd heard someone called a "wassock"--waz-UCK. He's a Lancaashire lad, and Stuart Pawson had used Lancashire slang in the book I was reading. Denis then went on to tell me that he was almost in his twenties before he stopped pronouncing all double-oh words as if the ohs sounded like the ones in "too."
DeleteNice that you felt well enough for a trip to the zoo! Even without the meerkats, being out and about is good for one's attitude!
ReplyDeleteIt most certainly is!
DeleteWell, I let slip some Yiddish words and the occasional Irish expression comes out.
ReplyDeleteI have the occasional slip myself.
DeleteIt's hard for some people to understand a person can have a multicultural family.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing to me how people can be willing live in a small box and never want to learn anything outside it.
DeleteYes. True, especially since I live in an enormous city with the U.N. here and people from all over the world. And lots of people have a multicultural family, amazing groupings together.
ReplyDeleteI think of of the most astounding things was when the mother of a much beloved partner said something that was stereotypical of Jewish people to me. I was shocked. She didn't know my mother's family was comprised of Jewish Eastern European immigrants. I had never heard that before.