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◄

• Craig Johnson's newest Longmire mystery spotlights a horrifying reality for Native women. Another article on Daughter of the Morning Star from Crimereads.
  
• A Pennsylvania school district does the right thing and reverses its ban on books by authors of color.
• Inside the rise of influencer publishing.
• The Book Club Revolution. Lots of women are voracious readers. Other women are capitalizing on that.
• All the Light We Cannot See, based on the bestselling novel, is a new series go for Netflix.
• How your car's color can affect its resale value.
• The science behind our pumpkin spice obsession.
• What if my book's cover design misrepresents its content?
• Children with special needs now have more options for Halloween costumes, and it's magnificent.
• New books will be hard to come by for the rest of the year. Say it ain't so, Joe!

 

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• A treasure hunter found a hoard of gold buried by an Iron Age chieftain. More from Smithsonian Magazine.
  
• A giant pyramid built by the Maya was made from rock spewed by a volcano.
• Marie Antoinette's diamond bracelets are going up for auction.
• A Baroque masterpiece spent six decades hiding in plain sight.
• A giant space rock demolished an ancient Middle Eastern city and everyone in it-- possibly inspiring the Biblical story of Sodom.
• A rare first edition of Frankenstein sells for a record-breaking $1.17 million.
• The mass graves of 13th-century Crusaders reveal the brutality of medieval warfare. More from Live Science.
• The ultimate basement find: an ancient city constructed between the 7th and 8th century BCE.

 

►Channeling My Inner Elly Mae Clampett◄

• Watch a bouncy baby kangaroo try hopping for the first time.
• Twenty headline-making animals.
• New research shows that squirrels have personality traits similar to humans.
• Recent discoveries show how dogs are hardwired to understand and communicate with people even at birth.
• Watch a pair of music-loving geese transfixed by a man playing a harmonica for them in the park.
• Colorized footage shows a glimpse of the last known Tasmanian tiger.
• Can birds tip us off to natural disasters?
• A musical border collie loves playing with wind chimes.

 

►Craftsmanship◄

• Italian carving artist Daniele Barresi carves elaborate designs into avocados.
• Inside the growing movement to share science through quilting.
• Brazilian street artist Fabio Gomes Trinidade uses trees as natural hair for his portraits of girls and women.

 

►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◄

• The strangest requests people have left in their wills.
• Four real life cases where social media played an important role in tragic events.
• Sixteen new books to get you out of your pandemic reading funk.
• Eleven literary mysteries for the high-minded sleuth.
• Nine mysteries told from multiple points-of-view.
• The dark reality behind "cozy mysteries."
• Six cozy mysteries told from a cat's perspective.
• Eight books based on real female spies.
• The New York Times' Fall Books 2021.

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!