A Color Me This Weekly Link Round-Up

 

This past week has been another pleasant one, with little to talk about other than the deep scratch on my elbow that I have no idea how it got there, and the huge bright yellow butterflies that use my back garden as a freeway. The hummingbirds absolutely love the bubbling hanging solar fountain-- so much so that they spend a lot of time chasing each other away from it, the territorial little devils!

The rest of the time, I've been stitching. Here's my growing pyramid of tissue box covers. There's one missing because it's a surprise that hasn't yet been seen by its recipient.

I'll be starting work on the one for my home health nurse, and then-- if the spirit still moves me-- I'll work on a few more. My niece, Daisy, has requested one, and I found the perfect pattern for it. I dug up a few more patterns from my stash that I'd like to use. Want to see how I work out color combinations? It helps if you have the empty top of a run of bookcases to plot things out.

Decisions, decisions!

Virtual hugs to you all. Enjoy the links!

►Books & Other Interesting Tidbits◄

• Vintage READ posters adorning libraries and classrooms for decades go on auction as the American Library Association turns 150. (I love those posters and had some of them adorning the walls of my workspace for years.)
• A new study says that your brain prefers to read on paper rather than on screens. (My brain always has to be different. It prefers my Kindle.)
• Why has the will to ignorance become so virulent in our time? (I never have thought ignorance was cute.)
• Why Jane Austen adaptations just keep coming-- and we keep watching.
• Publishers charge Anna's Archive with copyright infringement.
• What if readers like A.I.-generated fiction?
• Teenage boys in the UK are reading primary-level books while girls' tastes expand.

►Channeling My Inner Indiana Jones◄

• This ancient monolith unearthed in Mexico may depict people receiving "divine liquid" in a ritual.
• See these ancient Etruscan frescoes that Italy bought for millions and put on public display in Rome.
• Sold for just £5,588, this amber pendant turned out to be a rare Tudor-Era portrait of Elizabeth I. Now it's going on auction for £100,000.
• 500-year-old freeze-dried potato snacks were discovered in an Inca storage room in Peru.
• Deep in the Mexican jungle, archaeologists discovered a lost Maya city that may yield clues about the civilization just before it collapsed.
• Were Vikings really "uncivilized" barbarians? A large textile-production site discovered in Denmark challenges that stereotype.

►Channeling My Inner Elly May Clampett◄

• The elusive, critically endangered manumea-- and one of the closest living relatives of dodos-- was spotted for the first time in five years.
• Incredible, first-of-their-kind images show an orca being born in Norway-- and the rest of its pod forming a protective circle.
• Listen to a lion's second type of roar, which was just discovered by scientists.
• "Robo-Bunnies" are the newest weapon in the fight against invasive Burmese pythons in Florida.
• The life and times of Brighty, the Grand Canyon's most legendary burro.
• These urban birds evolved longer beaks during Covid-19 lockdowns. Then, they changed back.

4 for me. How about you?

►The Wanderer◄

• The U.S. ghost town that periodically rises out of a lake.
• 5 isolated islands that are strictly forbidden (and why).
• The Old Patent Office Building hosted Lincoln's inaugural ball and displayed that Declaration of Independence. Today, it's home to two world-class art museums.
• See stunning photos of new national park land that soon will be accessible from America's longest national trail.
• The Claude Glass revolutionized the way people saw landscapes.
• Raymond Island, the tiny Australian island where you can see koalas, kangaroos, and kookaburras.

►Fascinating Folk◄

• How Indonesia's feminists use the internet.
• During World War I, progressive reformer Frances Kellor asked Americans to welcome immigrants-- and urged new arrivals to assimilate.
• Excluded at the March on Washington, Dorothy Height went on to become the "Godmother of the Civil Rights Movement."
• Indigenous ecologist Jason Baldes is restoring the keystone bison on tribal lands.
• How German button maker John Boepple searched the rivers of the American Midwest for the shells that could make him a fortune.
• Alan Lomax spent years traveling the country to record the sounds of America. The legacy of his obsession will live forever.

►I ♥ Lists◄

• 20 great U.S. history books for July 4.
• The average salary needed to rent in each state, ranked.
• Eccentric investigators in Asian American and Asian cozy mysteries.
• Eight thrillers with beach and jungle settings.
• 18 must-read biographies and memoirs.
• 7 of the best crime thrillers and neo noirs from the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s.

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!