Thursday, September 30, 2021

A Socially Distanced Butterfly Weekly Link Round-Up

 

Denis and I have been making a point to go somewhere special once a week, usually on Wednesdays. Four weeks ago, it was the Heard Museum. Three weeks ago, it was the Musical Instrument Museum. Last week, it was the Desert Botanical Garden. As we were driving home from the DBG, Denis glanced over at me and asked, "Where to next week?" Good question. 

I'm writing this post the day after our visit to the Desert Botanical Garden. A lot will depend on the weather as to our destination. Yesterday, it was still over 100°, but at least the humidity was down. There were so few people there that I felt as though we had the place to ourselves, so there was no fighting over places to sit in the shade.


The Patio Cafe-- our favorite hangout in the Garden-- was still closed, but we enjoyed sitting in the shade with a cool breeze blowing. Don't tell anyone, but I just happened to have a small sack of organic raw sunflower kernels. I don't know why. It wasn't long until four young ground squirrels and a couple of Gambel's quail came over to say hello. The quail were both very shy hens, and they didn't stay long, but the ground squirrels settled in for a visit, more than one of them stretched out on its tummy, nibbling a sunflower kernel, and posing for pictures. The photo I've shared isn't the best quality. Part of my anatomy got in the way. But it does show that several of the different species of wildlife that call the Desert Botanical Garden are wary but have no real fear of humans. I've had ground squirrels clamber over my feet more than once. The wheel you see in the photo is one of the wheels on my electric scooter. 

On the way out, we stopped and talked with a woman who had seen us earlier and noticed my camera. We talked about the different birds we'd seen. Are you going to be able to take part in this visit? Of course. You'll be seeing a selection of photos sometime in the future, but the way things are going, this socially distanced butterfly is going to wind up with a huge backlog of photos to share.

Isn't that great?

Enjoy the links!


►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄
 
►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄
 
►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄
 
►Craftsmanship◄
 
►Fascinating Folk◄
  • How Irene Joliot-Curie's Nobel Prize-winning discovery saved millions of lives.
  • Emily Warren Roebling: the woman who saved the Brooklyn Bridge.
  • The lure of 14th-century Kent for crime writer S.D. Sykes.
  • A crime writer's guide to the classics: Andrea Camilleri.
  • Jadav Payeng spent forty years on a barren island planting a tree every day. Now the island is a giant forest.
  • Clarice Cliff, the factory girl who became an Art Deco ceramics sensation.
 
►The Wanderer◄
  • Heading for the Grand Canyon? Spend the night at the Cameron Trading Post. I have.
  • A woodland trail in Arizona will take you to the original Sinagua ruins. I'll have to see if Denis and I can do this.
  • The "Beyond Monet" exhibition is the largest immersive experience in Canada. If it makes it to Phoenix, you know where Denis and I will be!
  • Six stops on the Pony Express you can still visit.
  • New data shows that closing popular hiking trails in extreme heat in the Phoenix metro area is working. It still astounds me that people have to be told not to go mountain climbing with no water, no hat, no sunscreen, and wearing tank tops, shorts, and flip-flops when it's well over 100°...
 
►I ♥ Lists◄

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!

11 comments:

  1. I'm so glad you had the chance to go to the botanical garden, Cathy. Those trips out can really life the mood, especially to such a lovely place. I'll be interested to know where you decide to go next. As for me, I'm off to that amazing basement find, and then to the Mayan tample!

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    1. It was especially nice because we'd missed going there so much.

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  2. Love your weekly outings, thanks for sharing with us. Now for all these links. :)

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  3. How fun to have an outing to look forward to each week! Glad you are able to get out and enjoy.

    The article about the dark side of cozy mysteries was interesting. Just goes to show you that we are all different in what we can handle and how we process the world.

    Have a good weekend!

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    1. I don't think I ever really understood just how differently we process things until I started blogging.

      Happy weekend to you!

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  4. I had sort of given up on the Longmire series but this latest one sounds interesting. I might give it a read. I loved All the Light We Cannot See. I hope Netflix does it justice.

    I'm looking forward to seeing your photos!

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    1. I'm going to be taking a look at what Netflix does with ATLWCS, too.

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  5. OK...was reading through the list of your link categories, and then came to a screeching halt when I read these horrible words: "New Books Will Be Hard to Come by for the Rest of the Year." That did it.

    I never even thought about the possibility of supply chain bottlenecks and disruptions for something like a book. Admittedly, I don't have a lot of room for new books these days, and more and more often I end up with electronic copies, but that's just the beginning. This could really impact our libraries...and I mightily depend on my library to get me all those new books I want to try as soon as they are published. Fewer copies...longer wait-times. This is getting serious now.

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    1. Yes, it is. I'd been hearing of horrible bottlenecks with supplies as regards remodeling, so when someone came in yesterday to talk about replacing a shower in one of the bathrooms, I asked him about it. Our job won't be done until December, and they will have the supplies. That was good to hear.

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  6. I'll be looking forward to those photos - they may brighten a chilly, rainy fall day ( I really don't like to let go of summer, she says while sitting outside).

    And several indie bookstores that I follow have already been posting about the possibility of nook ahortages, warning that people may find themselves having to order the newest bestseller but not having it arrive until after the holidays because of the supply chain issues.

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    1. The Poisoned Pen here has been telling us for months about the problems they've had with book shipments, so it sounds as though it's only going to get worse.

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