No, I haven't gone around the bend. I'm not sitting out on the front porch with a shotgun yelling at people to STAY OFF MY LAWN. The ballistic refers to something else entirely.
This monsoon season has been the wettest in years, thank heaven, and if you want to really see how Mother Earth appreciates rain, live in a parched desert when it begins receiving the moisture it needs. Things are GREEN here in Arizona. We're still far, far, far from getting all the rainfall we need, but each and every drop is a blessing.
The ballistic I'm referring to is how the plants are responding to the rain here at Casa Kittling. We've been getting regular dousings as the storms move through the Phoenix area. Last week, a toadchoker hit in which we came within a gnat's eyelash of having the swimming pool filled with mud. I'm finally realizing how much of a water hog that huge Aleppo pine tree was. Now that it's gone and everything else can receive all the water available, it's almost as if I can see things growing right in front of my eyes. The sweet acacia tree has never been as tall as it is now, and the same goes for the birds of paradise.
I have three of these growing around a small birdbath. You're only seeing one, and this one is the shortest of the three at nine feet tall. For years, their summer height has been around the six foot mark. The bees and hummingbirds have been enjoying all the blossoms, and dozens of lemon yellow butterflies have been chasing each other in and out of those lacy fronds.
Yikes! I just looked at the time. I've got to get ready-- Denis and I are heading to the zoo today. I have to make sure I have that extra camera battery and memory card in my bag...
Enjoy the links!
►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄
- The "Facebook Murder" that shattered the Chinese Dutch community.
- Dolly Parton teams with James Patterson to write her first novel Run, Rose, Run.
- Laura Sackton's tour through Goodreads readers' to read shelves (or... someone is being judgy).
- Physical books are alive with memories. Has the pandemic pushed them into the ether for good?
- Buying books like I'm immortal: death and the TBR.
- How extortion scams and review bombing trolls turned Goodreads into many authors' worst nightmare.
- Plagiarism, "book-stuffing", click farms... the rotten side of self-publishing.
- New wearable medical sensors run on fingertip sweat.
►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄
- An overlooked section of Hadrian's Wall has been discovered beneath a busy Newcastle street.
- Archaeologists unearthed an ancient dagger linked to an enigmatic Indian civilization.
- A mysterious Iron Age burial may hold the remains of an elite nonbinary person.
- The world's oldest known coin mint has been found in China.
- A mysterious mound at an English manor may conceal the remains of a medieval castle.
- A Belgian woman has collected a treasure trove of 60,000 vintage tin boxes.
- Egypt's ancient King Khufu's boat has been moved from the pyramids of Giza to a new home.
- Researchers have found physical evidence of an earthquake that was described in the Old Testament.
►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄
- In a discovery that may have human implications, fecal transplants may reduce brain aging in mice.
- A thumb-sized bat makes a record-breaking flight...then gets killed by a house cat.
- A dog trained to ring a bell for attention alerts her owner to a family of bears in her backyard pool.
- Meet Lala the penguin who loved shopping at the fish market by himself every day.
- Busch is brewing up a nonalcoholic bone broth "beer" for dogs.
- Watch Yellowstone bison rescue a calf from attacking wolves.
- The horse breed that won the Revolutionary War almost disappeared. Here's how it's making a comeback.
- Squirrels use parkour moves and savvy to stick tricky landings. (I love watching them do it!) More from Live Science.
►Fascinating Folk◄
- Meet Pancho Barnes, the other legendary female aviator (who could drink any sailor under the table).
- The life and legacy of "Founding Mother" Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton.
- Mary Golda Ross, the first Native American aerospace engineer and Space Race pioneer.
- Meet Reagan Wytsalucy, the woman restoring Native American peaches to the Southwest.
- Rebecca Lukens, a woman of iron.
- Richard Norris Williams, the Olympic gold medalist who survived the sinking of the Titanic.
►Craftsmanship & Artistry◄
- How to make edge-grain patterned plywood.
- A relaxing needle felted stop motion summer cookout.
- This flapper's dollhouse cost more than most people's homes.
- AnonyMouse wedges miniature shops and restaurants built for mice into busy city streets.
- Stitching the past: the tale of the Falklands tapestries.
►The Wanderer◄
- The rise of Welsh crime fiction.
- Eight strange cloud types and what they mean. ("I wandered lonely as a cloud...")
- The best independent bookstores across the U.S. (I've visited two of them, but they missed an important one...)
- Tusayan Ruin, a Native American settlement dating back to the Pueblo II period, can be found at the Grand Canyon.
►I ♥ Lists◄
- Twenty Southern Gothic novels.
- Five cheerful books that will touch your heart.
- Twenty Latin insults you should know.
- Ten millennial heroines in fiction.
- Forty-two British mysteries you can stream on Amazon Prime Video (US).
- Five ways working at a used bookstore changed Danika Ellis forever.
- Suspense novels set on trains, boats, and transport.
- Non-fiction books that prove the resilience of the human spirit.
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.
Don't forget that Me Time spent curled up with a good book!
I love LaLa, the determined penguin who goes shopping for fish by himself. How adorable and intelligent.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks for the Amazon Video mysteries. I will bookmark the list.
And, oh, no, how could they forget the Poisoned Pen in Scottsdale, Ariz.?
And friends own Zenith Bookstore in Duluth, Minn., and it's reakkt buce,
Have fun at the zoo! I bet I know what's coming afterwards, treats for the blog's readers.
I didn't take very many photos at the zoo, but I certainly did soak up being outside in the sunshine with the wind blowing through my hair... and having critters like giraffes keeping a close eye on me.
DeleteYes-- I did think it was extremely short-sighted of that listmaker not to include The Poisoned Pen!
Rain in a dry climate is such a blessing, isn't it, Cathy? We desperately need rain where I am, and I hope it comes soon. In the meantime, I'm glad you're getting to feast your eyes on the beauty that there is when the ground gets enough water (or, at least, closer to enough!). Now, I think I'm heading to Hadrian's Wall. Have a lovely trip to the zoo!
ReplyDeleteWe did-- and the zoo was much greener than it had been the last time we'd visited.
DeleteThere go my late night typos. It's really nice is my comment about the Zenith Bookstore. (Actually, I'm typing without looking.)
ReplyDeleteI did decipher that to mean "really nice," but there for a second, I thought you were speaking in tongues. ;-)
DeleteWhat a blessing to see all that green in Arizona! My neck of the woods is still pretty dry, which is not typical for us. Some of our grass is crunchy.
ReplyDeleteI can relate to the article about buying books like I'm immortal. I have slowed down my book buying and use the library a lot - but the library closed when the pandemic hit! Which caused my to begin buying more books again (sigh). It's a fun problem to have 🙂.
Enjoy your visit to the zoo!
My physical book buying has slowed, and I try to limit those to books by authors that are on my Keeper Shelves and those books that I will hold giveaways for. But eBooks and audiobooks are an entirely different story!
DeleteFascinating links. I'm especially interested in the "Indiana Jones" ones and plan to visit them all later today.
ReplyDeleteEnjoy!
DeleteI'm sure the green is an appreciated sight in August in AZ! Off to check some of the links. :)
ReplyDeleteI hope you find one or two that tickle your fancy. :-)
DeleteThere's a lot to mine in that link about Welsh crime fiction, and I'm looking forward to trying to find some of the books and authors highlighted in it.
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction (snarky as it was, I admit) to the James Patterson/Dolly Parton collaboration was "is there anyone that this guy has written with. My second reaction (only a little less snarky) was, this may be good because Dolly is a much better storyteller than Patterson can ever hope to be.
Thank you, Sam, for my first (and hopefully not last) belly laugh of the day. I've only read one book that had Patterson's name on it, and it was because the co-author asked me to read and review it. I told him (Marshall Karp) that normally I didn't touch James Patterson's books with a 10-ft barge pole, but that I would make an exception for him.
DeleteSo... we seem to be pretty much eye-to-eye regarding the Parton/Patterson collaboration.
Beautiful! We are supposed to get a bit of rain this weekend, much needed!
ReplyDeleteIt's unfortunate that we all can't receive the rain we need when we need it-- and just in the amounts we need. There are places here in Arizona that are being wiped out by flooding.
DeleteI may read the Parton/Patterson book, not because I read his books. A strong No!
ReplyDeleteBut I'd like to see what she says. I like her a lot for many reasons. She's going strong at 75.
And I love those flowers. It must bw gorgeous in your birds-eye view.
I have three heroes: Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Sir David Attenborough,and Dolly Parton.
DeleteAttenborough?
ReplyDeleteIf you read "Nothing to See Here," a lovely book about children who burst into flames when they're upset, there is a great reference to Colly Parton.
When people are picking a state hero for Tennessee, meaning politicians, the two children want it to be Dolly Parton. Yes.
I have a lot of heroes from the Civil Rights Movement, Dolores Huerto, early union organizers. And I just read "One Life," by soccer star Megan Rapinoe. She, along with Serene Williams, Simone Biles, Billie Jean King, Flo Jo, Jesse Owens, Jackie Robinson, and more. I could gon on and on.
I had to return "One Life," today to the library and miss Megan Rapinoe. May have to get a copy. She is really something, risking her soccer career to espouse principles.
With my love of wildlife, you have a question mark after Sir David Attenborough's name?
DeleteOh, God: That's Dolly Parton and Serena Williams. Maybe I need new glasses.
ReplyDeleteIn order to get a connection, I have to push he laptop further away from me and I can't always see the small type well.
Sounds like a wifi problem more than an eye problem.
DeleteYes. It is a connection problem when I have to lean over as far as I can to type and I can't see the keyboard.
ReplyDeleteAm working on that with tech help.
I hope you get it fixed soon.
DeleteI don't know of Attenborough's contributions to wildlife.
ReplyDeleteTry these for starters.
Deletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/nine-astonishing-ways-david-attenborough-shaped-your-world/z4k2kmn
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0041003/
Okey-dokey.
ReplyDelete