The Nature of Things

I must confess up front that I had a very hard time with this book. I read it during and just after this month's election and I was distracted, finding it hard to think about anything other than the election and the enormous blunder that the voters in this country have just made. So, I can't say I really gave the book the attention that it deserved and now find it hard to comment on what I read. But I'll give a try. The setting of the book is the French Polynesian island of Makatea. It is a tiny atoll in the middle of the Pacific and at the time that the book's action takes place its people are considering a life-changing proposal for their island home. We experience the story through the eyes of four people on the island. First is Evie Beaulieu who, as a twelve-year-old, tested one of the world's first aqualungs under the eyes of her father in their backyard swimming pool. It was the start of her love affair with the ocean and she now spends her life submerging her

November is, in fact, one of my favorite months of the year, possibly because it contains my favorite holiday of the year, Thanksgiving. But also there is something about the weather of November. Summer's heat is finally gone from the Gulf Coast and on most days it is quite pleasant to be outside. I enjoy the misty moisty days of November. It is pleasant to sit on my patio and watch as new birds show up in the backyard almost every day. The birds that were "gone away" from Frost's Northeast are now our winter visitors; my "November guests," are arriving. My November Guest by Robert Frost My sorrow, when she’s here with me,   Thinks these dark days of autumn rain Are beautiful as days can be; She loves the bare, the withered tree;      She walks the sodden pasture lane. Her pleasure will not let me stay.      She talks and I am fain to list: She’s glad the birds are gone away, She’s glad her simple worsted grey      Is silver now with clinging mist. The desol

  A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment : Dark-eyed Junco photographed at the Chihuahua Nature Center in Alpine, Texas a few years ago. I haven't seen one here yet this autumn but they should be arriving soon. *~*~*~* ( Note to readers : If you are unable to access any of the links I've provided, I suggest you do a search on the subject and connect to a link to which you do have access .)  *~*~*~* The Leonid meteor shower will be at its peak this weekend. The light of a near-full Supermoon , the Beaver Moon, may interfere with viewers on Earth being able to see it.  *~*~*~* Global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are on track to set a new record this year. *~*~*~* A group of leading climate policy experts says that future climate summits should only be held in countries that show support for climate action. *~*~*~* But do those summits actually have any effect? A new report indicates that a major climate goal is farther out of reach than e

This is the third and apparently final entry in Attica Locke's "Highway 59" series. The action takes place in East Texas (Lufkin) and Houston, areas that I'm somewhat familiar with, having lived here for many years. Locke obviously knows the area well also and her descriptions of places and people are right on. The main character in the novels is Texas Ranger Darren Mathews. In this instance, Darren is facing early retirement and a potential indictment for actions he has taken. On the plus side, he has finally met a woman that he loves and is planning on remaking his life with her in his beloved farmhouse. But then his peace is shattered by a visit from his estranged mother. His mother is a cleaner at a sorority house at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches. She tells Darren that one of the members of the sorority - the only Black member - is missing. Darren is not sure he can trust his mother's story but he feels compelled to investigate. However, wh

I came across this Mary Oliver poem last week and it reminded me that the goldfinches should be arriving soon. We usually get them around the first of December, sometimes a little earlier. I look forward to their arrival and I will always find time in my "busy and important days" to watch them just as Mary Oliver would have, for " it is a serious thing just to be alive on this fresh morning in a broken world..." And it is always a serious thing while alive to be appreciative of all the beauty that Nature provides to soothe our weary and dispirited souls. Invitation by Mary Oliver Oh do you have time to linger for just a little while out of your busy and very important day for the goldfinches that have gathered in a field of thistles for a musical battle, to see who can sing the highest note, or the lowest, or the most expressive of mirth, or the most tender? Their strong, blunt beaks drink the air as they strive melodiously not for your sake and not for mine and not

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment :  This magnificent bird is the American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week . It is the Zone-tailed Hawk , a resident of the American Southwest, Central America, right down into South America. The bird's status is threatened by habitat loss. *~*~*~* Drought conditions now cover as much as 87 percent of the United States. Moreover, severe drought has put at risk nearly half a million children in the Amazon region. The drought is also a threat to the Panama Canal as well as to the entire country of Panama.  *~*~*~* With all of that as a background, this year's U.N. climate summit has been taking place . Meanwhile, the U.N. Secretary-General warns that we are still underestimating the threat of catastrophic climate breakdown and ecosystem collapse.  *~*~*~* A new agreement would shift some of the profits from the use of genetic information to help pay for global conservation efforts. *~*~*~* It will not come a