Poetry Sunday: Sea Fever by John Masefield

John Masefield was an English poet born in 1878. He was poet laureate from 1930 until his death in 1967. This is one of his most famous poems. I love the rhythm of it. It may be best read out loud to appreciate that rhythm. See if it does not evoke for you the lonely sea and sky and the image of tall ships. Enjoy!   

Sea Fever

by John Masefield

I must down to the seas again, to the
lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer
her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and
the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey
dawn breaking.
I must go down to the seas again, for the call
of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be
denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white
clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and
the sea-gulls crying.
I must go down to the seas again, to the
vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way, where
the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing
fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the
long trick’s over.

This week in birds - #461

A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

A Cooper's Hawk keeping a close eye on my backyard from a neighbor's pine tree.

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A new study tracking the planet's vital signs has found that many of the key indicators of global warming, such as carbon emissions, ocean acidification, and clearing of the Amazon rainforest, are getting worse and are either approaching or already exceeding key tipping points in the global climate crisis.

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Utah's Great Salt Lake is not so great anymore. Its water level has reached a historic low and it is expected to continue to drop in the coming months. This could prove disastrous for the millions of birds that rely on the lake. 

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Meanwhile, California's Salton Sea, once an idyllic lake, is shrinking and has become a home to dangerous algal blooms, endless dust, and toxic air that is making residents sick.

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Wouldn't it be great to have Shazam for birds so you can point your phone app toward a singing bird and it will be identified for you? In fact, such an app exists. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has recently released an updated version of its Merlin Bird ID app that though it doesn't claim to be 100% accurate is pretty close to it. 

*~*~*~*

How do wildfires start and spread? The Capital Weather Gang explains.

*~*~*~*

Wildfires are a problem right around the globe. In Sardinia, an area in the western part of the Italian island has been hit by an unprecedented wildfire that has burned a 25-mile swath.

*~*~*~*

One method used to counteract and control wildfires is prescribed burns. An area is deliberately set alight to burn off brush and fallen trees that could otherwise fuel a wildfire.

*~*~*~*

The state of Wisconsin seems determined to extirpate its wolf population. After allowing hunters to blow right past the quota set during the February hunt that took place during the animals' breeding season, the state now plans to allow another hunt in the fall. Unless the Fish and Wildlife Service chooses to once again put the animals on the Endangered Species protected list, their chances of survival appear slim.

*~*~*~*

Juvenile great white sharks are colonizing new areas along the central and southern California coast. The young sharks swim near the beaches where surfers and swimmers play. They show no interest in the humans with whom they share the waters.

*~*~*~*

A team of 99 scientists has finally deciphered the entire human genome two decades after the first draft was unveiled. In the process, they uncovered more than 100 previously unknown genes that are probably functional and many new variants that may be linked to diseases.

*~*~*~*

Researchers studying grizzly bears in British Columbia have undertaken a new project of tracking orphan cubs that have been reared in a shelter and returned to the wild to see if they are actually able to thrive in the wild. 

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What happens to us when a part of our world disappears, when a species that we have known becomes extinct? What, for example, would our world be like if there were no more Bobolinks? 

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Humans are able to use the stars to navigate around the planet. This was more common in the past, of course. But we are not the only ones who use starlight to navigate; many animals do so. Even dung beetles!

*~*~*~*

An analysis that used public health studies concluded that for every 4,434 metric tons of carbon dioxide produced, one person globally will die. This figure represents the average lifetime emissions currently being generated by 3.5 Americans.

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From the world of archaeology comes the announcement that a Stone Age Acheulian ax found in Morocco has been dated to 1.3 million years ago. The find pushes back by hundreds of thousands of years the start date in North Africa of the Acheulian stone tool industry that is associated with a key human ancestor, Homo erectus.

*~*~*~*

Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary in Lake Huron is part of a system of underwater reserves around the country. This sanctuary is home to nearly 100 known well-preserved shipwrecks, some more than a hundred years old.

*~*~*~*

Big oil has a filthy legacy in Africa. They move out and leave their mess behind. In Nigeria, the fisherwomen of the Niger Delta are fighting back. They are demanding that Chevron and other big oil companies be held to account for the pollution they have created. (Shades of How Beautiful We Were by Imbolo Mbue which I read earlier this year.)

*~*~*~*

The drought and a confluence of extreme conditions are threatening the trout population in Montana's legendary waters. The state this week announced a slate of new restrictions, including some outright closures, in order to protect the top trout streams.

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A new study of 176 nations found that the top ten countries most vulnerable to climate change impacts and environmental pollution are located in Africa and South Asia, with the Democratic Republic of Congo being the worst off. 

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Researchers have identified threats facing dozens of bat species in parts of the world that are predicted to get hotter and drier. This means that many species will have to shift their ranges to find suitable habitats. There are some steps that humans can take to help them. 

*~*~*~*

Gardeners can now grow okra in Anchorage! Jeff Lowenfels has written a gardening column for The Anchorage Daily News since November 1976. Though he never intended it, his column over those 45 years has documented the changes caused by climate change.

*~*~*~*

This is a male Kiwikiu, a rare Hawaiian native that was thought to be dead, after having been released to the wild in 2019. But recently, after having been missing for 605 days, he has been found again. He lives! Never give up hope.

*~*~*~*

Can you answer ten questions about the warming climate? 

When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain: A review

 

This is billed as Paula McLain's debut thriller and thrilling it certainly is. It is a dark tale set in the early 1990s and featuring a female San Francisco police detective whose job has been searching for missing persons, particularly missing children. Usually, these children are young girls, teenagers, or young women and their stories all too frequently end in tragedy. Then, an unspeakable personal tragedy hits this detective who is named Anna Hart and she flees San Francisco and heads to the town where she grew up, Mendocino. But even there, she finds that the local police, including its chief with whom she went to school, are working on a case involving a missing teenage girl. Cameron Curtis is the daughter of a former movie star who lives in the area and her disappearance has many similarities to a historical case, the disappearance and murder of Jenny Ledford, a girl from Anna's high school. Jenny had been in Anna's circle of friends. Anna cannot help herself; she becomes embroiled in the investigation.

As the investigation proceeds, the detectives learn of other missing girls from towns in the area. Is it possible that the cases are connected? Are they dealing with one perpetrator?

As the narrative unfolds, we learn of Anna's backstory and her own traumatic childhood that has given her a particular empathy for the children in these cases. Anna's mother had overdosed on Christmas Eve when Anna was eight years old, leaving her with two younger siblings whom she adored and tried to care for. Social Services learned of the situation and stepped in. The children were split up and Anna was sent to a series of foster homes until she finally ended up with two loving foster parents who raised her and gave her a grounding for her life. The father was a forest ranger and he taught her to love the outdoors and gave her essential survival skills that would later stand her in good stead. The mother was an empathetic Earth Mother type who had more than a touch of mysticism about her. She imparted all of this persona to Anna. The combination of the skills she learned from both of her parents has made Anna perhaps the perfect match for the job that she does.

Anna's theory about Cameron and some of the other girls' disappearances is that a "certain set of experiences made them vulnerable, and not just in a general way either but to the particular predators who targeted them." She believes that studying the girls' psyches is just as important to cracking the cases as is the profiling of the bad guys. She calls the markers of early childhood trauma "bat signals" and they identify kids to whom really terrible things have happened, things that have broken down the children's ability to cope. The bat signal goes out and every psychopath, sadist, sociopath, alcoholic, narcissist sees it and responds. Reading all of this is difficult but engrossing and I was thankful that the writer did not dwell on the torments inflicted on children. They are a part of the story but she does not wallow in them. Her point in all of this is that trauma should be exposed because when it stays hidden it can fester and ruin lives.

In trying to find out what happened to Cameron and the other girls, Anna is willing to ask for help from unusual sources. From a psychic, for example. She, of course, learned this openness to alternative methods at her mother's knee, and the psychic she consults does actually offer some useful guidance.

As the narrative has progressed, we have continued to learn more about Anna's background and the traumas she has experienced. There's one last trauma as Anna faces down a kidnapper/killer in the forest on her own. But thanks to her father's teaching, she knows how to survive.

And finally, we learn of the gutwrenching event that caused Anna to flee San Francisco and seek solace in her hometown. I was completely invested in Anna at this point and the tears flowed readily as I read. It was the psychic who once again gave Anna and the reader hope that there might still be redemption and joy in life. The book ended on that note of hope.

McLain builds her plot and paces the story just about perfectly in my opinion. Moreover, in Anna, she has given us a character with whom we can identify and empathize. This is not your ordinary dark mystery/thriller; I would term it a literary thriller. The writing is lyrical at times and it educates and informs as well as giving heart-pounding action. I can't think of a thing about it that I would change.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars   

The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji: A review

The original Japanese version of this book was published in 1987 during the early "honkaku" movement in Japanese mystery novel writing. In the foreword to this English version, published May 21, 2021, writer Shimada Soji explains that honkaku means orthodox. It is orthodox in the sense that it is a throwback to the golden age of Western mystery writing in the first half of the 20th century. It is a homage to writers like Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr, to name just two of the most famous. 

Honkaku refers to detective stories that are not only literature but to a greater or lesser extent also a game. They generally are "locked room" mysteries or at least take place in isolated locations. This one, for example, takes place on a virtually inaccessible island that has no means of communication with the outside world. The time is March 1986 and the great communication revolution has yet to take place. Honkaku books feature extremely complicated plots and that is certainly true of this one.

During the early part of the movement, the formation of mystery clubs at universities became very popular. The Kyoto University Mystery Club, to give one instance, was founded in 1974. The clubs encouraged the study of classic mysteries and involved the members in playing various whodunit games. Yukito Ayatsuji was an early member of one of these clubs. Ayatsuji's book is a homage to the Queen of Mystery, the great Agatha, and one of her best-known works, And Then There Were None. If you are familiar with that book, you may be able to pick up the clues along the way that point to the solving of the mystery.

The book features seven members of one of those university mystery clubs that decide to visit a remote island where a year earlier grisly multiple murders took place. Four people were found dead there. The body assumed to be the owner of the house was burned beyond recognition. His wife's body had the left hand removed. Two servants who lived with them on the island were also killed. After they were murdered the house where they were found, called the Blue House, was burned. Their murders have never been solved.

There were two houses on the little island, the Blue House that burned and the Decagon House. The Decagon House was designed by the architect who owned both houses and it had ten sides, ten rooms surrounding a common room. There were ten identical doors opening to the rooms which included an entranceway, a kitchen, a bathroom, and seven bedrooms. The mystery club members will stay in this house during their visit and when they arrive each person chooses one of the bedrooms. Throughout the book, these members are not referred to by their Japanese names but by the names of Western mystery writers that each has chosen for him/herself. So, we have Ellery, Agatha, Carr, Orczy, Leroux, Van, and Poe. Two other members - one current and one former - of the club did not make the trip and they remain on the mainland.   

A sense of dread seems to permeate the island from when they first set foot on it; not surprising considering the horror that took place there only a year earlier. Each of the members is affected by it to some degree but Orczy is particularly infected with the stress of the place. Meanwhile, back on the mainland, the current and former member of the club who did not make the trip receive anonymous letters which read: "My daughter Chiori was murdered by all of you." The name of the sender on the envelope is Nakamura Seiji, the architect who had supposedly died on the island the year before. We learn that Chiori had also been a member of the mystery club and that she had died after club members encouraged, or maybe forced, her to drink a lot of whisky at a party. 

And then the members on the island start dying in mysterious circumstances. The first to go is Orczy who is killed in her own bed. More murders follow. The members are being picked off one by one.

One could be seriously horrified by the multiple murders but the writer saves us from that because his characters are basically one-dimensional paper dolls. We are not meant to identify with them. They are simply tropes for the delivery of the pieces of the puzzle, the game that the writer wants us to play. The game of following the clues to figure out whodunit, even as Agatha Christie would have had us do.

I've read a lot of Christie, including And Then There Were None, and I had a pretty good idea of how this was all going to play out. But there were some surprises along the way and an epilog gives a further twist to the story. 

This translation was done by Hong-Li Wong and it was smooth reading for the most part with only a few bits that felt clunky and awkward. The translator's job of remaining true to the original text while also providing a readable text in another quite different language cannot be an easy one.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear: A review

 

1941 London. England has been at war for two years. German bombs are still falling on the country. Psychologist/detective Maisie Dobbs' contribution to the war effort is to work for British intelligence services evaluating potential candidates for undercover work in France and elsewhere. Meanwhile, she continues to carry on her private detective agency business with the invaluable help of her assistant, Billy Beale.

At the same time, her private life has taken a definite step forward. Her adopted daughter is the light of her life. She stays with Maisie's parents at her home in Kent and Maisie goes there on weekends. Also, she is in an affair with American Mark Scott which seems very promising. Mark better watch his back though. Men who fall in love with Maisie usually wind up dead!

During this period of the war, British intelligence services were employing young boys as runners to deliver messages around London. These young kids ran past decimated buildings and dead bodies, sometimes dodging bombs to deliver their messages. It's outrageous to imagine this now but there was no internet and even phone service was spotty in wartime London of '41. Kid runners were deemed to be the best option.

One of those kid runners was twelve-year-old Freddie Hackett. One night on his way to a delivery, he witnesses two men in hand-to-hand combat. He hides in a doorway and watches in horror as one of the men pulls a knife and stabs the other to death. The murderer walks away. Poor traumatized Freddie continues to hide for a few minutes but then recovers himself and goes to the address he's been given to deliver the message. Imagine his shock when the man who opens the door to receive the message is the murderer!

Freddie tries to report the murder to the police but when they go to check there is no body and the site has been cleaned up. They don't even find any blood. They assume Freddie is simply imagining things and don't investigate any further.

At one time, Freddie had delivered a message to investigator Maisie Dobbs and she had been kind to him. Now he goes to her office with his story and asks for help. Maisie accepts the truth of his report and goes to investigate. At the site, she finds a couple of clues overlooked by the police, including traces of blood, and she determines to find out what has really happened.

Meanwhile, she continues her profiling work for the intelligence services and is sent to Scotland to interview some potential candidates. And there she meets the man who Freddie believes is a murderer. He is with French Resistance and is considered a valuable ally. Maisie's two jobs have collided at this point. How will she resolve her conundrum of helping Freddie while fulfilling her obligations to the intelligence service?

As always in these novels, there is a lot of historical detail and background as well as the background of the characters involved. We learn, for example, that young Freddie's background is particularly fraught with an abusive stepfather and a mother and younger sister with Down Syndrome who he is determined to protect. The tension of it all is driving this twelve-year-old to distraction. But we can be assured that Maisie will find a way to help.

The character of Maisie can often come across as too much of a goody-two-shoes, just a little bit too virtuous, too perfect. And the characters overall do tend to be a bit stereotypical, but the stories are good, the historical facts well-researched. This is the sixteenth entry in the series, the first book of which was published in 2003. On the whole, the quality of the writing has held up well. That remains true with The Consequences of Fear. 

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Poetry Sunday: The Gardener by Ken Weisner

Thanks to Deb Nance for suggesting the poem for this week. It is a lovely tribute to the gardeners of the earth who bless each humble sprout that grows in their green patch. The poem is dedicated to Kit, the poet's wife, who has evidently inspired his admiration for gardeners. I admit I am not as staunch a gardener as she apparently is, particularly when the temperature gets above 95 degrees, but, like him, I can admire those who are "purified by labor, confessed by its whisperings, connected to its innocence."

The Gardener

by Ken Weisner

For Kit

You get down on your knees in the dark earth—alone
for hours in hot sun, yanking weed roots, staking trellises,
burning your shoulders, swatting gnats; you strain your muscled
midwestern neck and back, callous your pianist’s hands.

You cut roses back so they won’t fruit, rip out and replace
spent annuals. You fill your garden dense with roots and vines.
And when a humble sprout climbs like a worm up out of death,
you are there to bless it, in your green patch, all spring and summer long,

hose like a scepter, a reliquary vessel; you hum
through the dreamy wilderness—no one to judge, absolve,
or be absolved—purified by labor, confessed by its whisperings, connected
to its innocence. So when you heft a woody, brushy tangle, or stumble

inside grimy, spent by earth, I see all the sacraments in place—
and the redeemed world never smelled so sweet.

This week in birds - #460

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

He looks a bit raggedy now but give him a few weeks and this molting Northern Mockingbird will have new feathers and will be sleek and beautiful once again.

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Some of the western wildfires are so big and intense that they create their own weather systems. There have been incidents of fire tornadoes, as well as more commonly clouds, haze, and other phenomena. Smoky haze from the fires has even reached as far as New York City. 

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The lower 48 states cannot look for any relief from the heat in the coming week, according to meteorologists. Another "heat dome" is expected which this time will reach parts of the central and eastern United States that were largely spared from the previous such phenomenon. Early estimates are that the contiguous states will have temperatures that reach ten to fifteen degrees above normal. 

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Torrential rain resulted in massive flooding in central China this week, overflowing the banks of rivers and overwhelming dams and the public transport system. Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate and the final death toll is still unknown.

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Meanwhile in Florida, a devastating red tide algal bloom has caused massive deaths of sea life including fish, turtles, dolphins, and manatees. Their rotting bodies litter the shorelines of central Florida.

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to withdraw the previous administration's rule that would have slashed millions of acres of critical habitat protections for the endangered Northern Spotted Owl. The new rule would leave far more land protected, reducing the overall protected area by about 2%.

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Repeated hurricanes, failed crops, and extreme poverty are driving rural Hondurans to attempt the dangerous trek north to seek refuge at the southern United States border. It is evident that this is not a border crisis, it is a climate crisis.

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Scientists and advocates say that neonicotinoid pesticides need tougher regulation. The pesticides have been shown to harm bees, birds, and other wildlife. Scientists urge the Environmental Protection Agency to take action to strengthen regulations within the next year.

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The United Nations World Heritage Committee met in the Chinese city of Fuzhou this week and was urged by its Chinese host to designate the Great Barrier Reef as "in danger." The committee was aggressively lobbied by the Australian government to refrain from labeling the reef as such and in the end, their lobbying prevailed. The committee ignored the scientific assessment of UNESCO and did not add the reef to the list of world heritage sites in danger. 

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A man at a remote mining camp near Nome, Alaska was repeatedly attacked by a grizzly bear over the past week. He was finally rescued when a Coast Guard helicopter aircrew patrolling the area saw his signals for help. The 50 to 60-year-old man had multiple but non-life-threatening injuries and was taken to a hospital.

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Maybe we can just blame it all on the men. A Swedish analysis has found that men's spending on goods causes 16% more climate-heating emissions than do women's. The biggest difference, apparently, was men's spending on fuel for their cars. 

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Research indicates that a virulent and fast-moving coral disease that has swept through the Caribbean could be linked to waste or ballast water from ships. The malady known as stony coral tissue loss disease was first identified in Florida in 2014 and has moved through the whole area since then.

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A rare giant opah, or moonfish, three feet long and weighing about 100 pounds, has washed up on the northern Oregon coast. These fish can grow to more than six feet and weigh as much as 600 pounds. It is speculated that the death of the fish may have been caused by the recent heatwave in the area that caused the death of so many marine creatures. 

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The Straw-headed Bulbul, a resident of Southeast Asia, has a most melodious song and that is its downfall. People want it as a caged bird so they can listen to it sing and the practice of trapping the birds for cages is threatening to drive the bulbul to extinction in the wild.

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The science of ecology developed through a western knowledge production process that has existed hand in hand with extraction, violence, and imperialism. As we have become more sensitized to these issues of colonialism, scientists in various fields, including ecology, have made efforts to eradicate the historical symbols of these issues that exist in their fields.  

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Isla Natividad, a Mexican island that is home to at least 95% of the world's population of Black-vented Shearwaters, had an unwanted visitor in 2019; a rat was seen on the island. Invasive rats could have devastated the shearwaters and that provoked an intense search to find and eradicate the critter.  

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An ambitious project to rebuild Louisiana's vanishing coastal wetlands promises to provide vital habitat for birds and protection from hurricanes but the project also will disrupt some livelihoods.

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Northeastern Siberia has experienced unprecedented 100-degree days recently and now wildfires have spread in the region. The frozen land is burning and this is the third year in a row that residents have seen this happen. It is the worst wildfire season in their memories.

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A project in Los Angeles seeks to plant trees in communities that lack tree canopies. Such canopies would, of course, help to protect residents from dangerously high temperatures.

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A groundbreaking new law in Maine bans "forever chemicals" as toxic PFAS chemical compounds are known. The ban will take effect in all products by 2030 except in cases where they are deemed "currently unavoidable." Maine is the first state to enact such a broad ban. 

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There are very many species of birds that have not been observed for long periods of time, but that does not necessarily mean they are extinct. The quest for these lost birds occasionally ends on a happy note as did the discovery of the Black-browed Babbler in Indonesia. The bird had not been seen for 170 years.

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In America, we sometimes have raccoons raiding our trash cans for goodies. In Australia, the role of the raccoon is played by the Sulfur-crested Cockatoo. These clever parrots have learned how to open the trash cans in order to explore for tidbits. 

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Grassland birds, like many others, face a growing loss of habitat but in New England programs are in place to pay farmers for growing crops that give Bobolinks and other grassland birds a boost.

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Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post opines that we are fiddling while the world burns and it's time to stop.

Transient Desires by Donna Leon: A review

 

Donna Leon published her first Guido Brunetti mystery in 1992. Twenty-nine more have followed. This is the thirtieth in the series. A few years ago I was seriously addicted to this series and I read the first thirteen entries in order. Then I tired of it and moved on to other things. When I read a synopsis of this latest book, my interest was piqued once again and I decided to read it. It goes a bit against my nature, but I have to admit I am never going to read all the seventeen intervening books in order, so why not read number thirty? Guido won't mind.

In fact, in reading this book, it seemed to me that no time had passed and nothing had changed between number thirteen and number thirty. All the well-known characters are still there and the main character, Venice, seems not to have changed at all. Government corruption, bureaucratic inertia, rampant nepotism, and rising seas still plague the city. The tourists are still as badly behaved as ever and immigrants both legal and illegal are a challenge to the city's social services. People are judged by their accents and in order to tease out information, Brunetti is often forced to speak the local vernacular, Veneziano, rather than more cultured Italian. Veneziano is virtually incomprehensible to outsiders. At one point, Brunetti ruminates on the differences between Veneziano and the Neapolitan colloquial speech and the assumptions that he and others make based on those differences. Prejudice, it seems, is rampant in Venetian society and even exists in someone as compassionate and enlightened as Guido Brunetti. These kinds of cogent observations are one of the hallmarks of this series. 

The mystery that Guido is called upon to solve this time involves two young Italian men and two young American women tourists. The four had gone for a joyride in the laguna on one Saturday night, but the joyride came to an abrupt end when the motorboat they were in hit an underwater pylon. The impact knocked all four of them off their feet and three of them, the pilot of the boat and the two women, were seriously injured. The pilot of the boat had taken it out without the permission of the owner, his uncle. As we eventually learn, the uncle is involved in nefarious activities, including smuggling. Among the things he smuggles are women to be sold into the sex trade. Human trafficking, apparently, has become big business in Venice and the boat used for the joyride is one of the vessels used in that business.

After the accident, the two men take the women to the dock of the hospital and unload them there. They are both unconscious by this time. One of the young men goes to push the emergency button to alert hospital staff, then he jumps back into the boat and the men flee. What they don't know is that the emergency button is disconnected and no one knows the women are there until an employee goes to the dock for a smoke break and discovers them.  Guido and his team are called to investigate, but since the accident happened on the water, they must coordinate with the Guardia Costiera and so they become involved in the probe into smuggling and human trafficking. All of this forces Guido out of his comfort zone and makes him confront the ugly abuse of immigrants as human cargo.

Meantime, Guido continues his practice of going home for lunch every day where his professor wife will have managed to cook him a gourmet meal which he will enjoy with her and their two almost-grown children. The whole thing will be repeated at dinner where another lovingly prepared and described gourmet meal will be consumed. These interludes with the family are another hallmark of this series, one that marks it as different from the usual fictional detective with a dysfunctional personal life.  

Leon's unique method of combining observations on culture and society with a thoughtful exploration of crime and justice or lack thereof has been a winning combination for her for almost thirty years now. In Guido Brunetti, she has invented the perfect vehicle for telling these stories. He is humane and likable, with all too human foibles. In other words, he is someone we can identify with and root for. Her plots sometimes, as in this case, take a while to really get going. They tend to meander along for a bit until Guido becomes clearly focused on the problem at hand. But in the end, she manages to bring it all together for a not always satisfying but generally believable conclusion. I would not be surprised if she has at least thirty more of these stories in her. 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith: A review

 

This is the second of Patricia Highsmith's books that I had on my reading list for the summer. (The first was The Talented Mr. Ripley.) This book was actually her debut novel published in 1950. It was adapted as a screenplay for the classic 1951 movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Many years later, I saw the movie as the late show on television one night. It made quite an impression on me at the time, although I can't now recall how closely it followed the book. My vague recollection is that there are differences, but don't hold me to that.

The basic plot of the book - and the movie - is probably pretty well known by most people. After all, it's right there in the title of the book. Two strangers meet on a train. One is a successful architect named Guy Haines. He is unhappily married and hoping to convince his wife not to oppose a divorce. He is anxious for a divorce because he is in love with someone else who he hopes to marry. He is on the train to travel to his hometown in Texas where his wife is living. He will meet with her to discuss the divorce. 

The other stranger is Charles Anthony Bruno. Bruno is a certifiable psychopath. That becomes clear early on in their conversation. In addition to being a psychopath, he is an alcoholic, a bad combination. Bruno is obsessed with his mother and he hates his stepfather. As the two men talk, Bruno draws Haines out about his relationship with his wife and points out to him how much simpler his life would be if his wife were not on the scene. There would be no worrying about the legal niceties of divorce; he could simply get on with his life.

It's a short step from this conversation to Bruno's next suggestion: He has an idea for the perfect murder or murders. He could kill Haines' wife and Haines could kill his stepfather. The murders would be perfect because there would be no reason to suspect the killers since they don't know the victims and no one would be aware that the two of them had ever met. Guy is horrified by the suggestion and turns him down. The two part company. A few weeks later Guy's wife is murdered. He knows that Bruno must have done it.

Already a nervous wreck after the death of his wife, Guy becomes even more anxious and apprehensive when Bruno starts contacting him and then stalking him. The pressure becomes intense and it seems that the only way he will get any relief is if he does what Bruno wants and kills his stepfather. Eventually, he gives in and does as Bruno has instructed. That doesn't end it though, because Bruno keeps stalking him, showing up wherever Guy goes. His life becomes a nightmare.

The writing in this book does feel dated. Well, after all, it was written more than seventy years ago. Still, Highsmith excelled at constructing and executing her plot in such a way as to create maximum tension and expectation. One can feel the menace build as the true dimensions of Bruno's psychopathy become evident. Moreover, as the psychological pressure applied to Guy Haines begins to push him over the edge into madness, the suspense keeps mounting. Will he or won't he commit murder? And will they or won't they both get away with it? Is there any clue that would allow a sharp detective to piece the whole story together and bring the miscreants to justice? Read the book and find out!

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

   

Poetry Sunday: Kindness by Naomi Shihab Nye

Perhaps before we can truly know kindness we have to have been in need of kindness. We have to have felt loss and sorrow. When kindness is shown to us in these circumstances, we learn how to show it to others. At least that seems to be what Naomi Shihab Nye tells us in her poem.

Kindness

by Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white
poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing
inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense
anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

This week in birds - #459

 A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:

A young Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in flight. He hasn't yet developed the long iconic tail feathers of his species but you can see the beginning of the "scissor."

*~*~*~*

Reservoir levels throughout the West are dropping drastically as the prolonged drought continues unabated. Many are at historically low levels already. The unprecedented heat is further stressing the water supply and the surrounding landscape. 

*~*~*~*

The UN has drafted an ambitious plan to halt biodiversity loss and cut the extinction rate by a factor of ten. The plan involves eliminating plastic pollution, reducing pesticide use, halving the rate of invasive species, and eliminating $500 billion of harmful government subsidies. The goal is to help halt and reverse the ecological destruction of Earth by the end of the decade.

*~*~*~*

An aggressive male Mute Swan, a nonnative species, was set to be euthanized in Brick Township, New Jersey, but an unusual twist to his story appears to have given him a reprieve.

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This is troubling news. Scientists have confirmed that the Amazon rainforest, sometimes referred to as Earth's lungs, is now emitting more carbon dioxide than it is able to absorb. 

*~*~*~*

Scientists warn that there could be an increase in flooding in the next decade due to a double whammy from climate change and a "wobble" by the moon as it changes its angle relative to the equator over time. It is something that coastal communities need to be aware of and prepare for.

*~*~*~*

But we don't need to wait for the next decade to see the devastating effects of floods. Raging floods in Western Europe this week have left scores dead and hundreds missing and still unaccounted for.

*~*~*~*

I find it amazing and alarming that there have been no limits set for PFAS "forever chemicals" in Americans' drinking water, but now the Environmental Protection Action is considering placing such limits. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

*~*~*~*

Is this carved deer bone, found in a cave in Germany, an example of Neanderthal art? Neanderthals have long been underestimated in their technological and cultural achievements because so few of their artifacts have been found, but the more we learn about them the more we see that they used sophisticated tools, buried their dead, and, of course, they mated with Homo sapiens. Modern humans of European ancestry generally have one to two percent Neanderthal DNA.

*~*~*~*

People who get tired of their pet goldfish and decide to dump them in a local waterway are creating an invasive species problem. Those goldfish can grow to football size and they can degrade the environment in which they live rendering it uninhabitable for native species.  

*~*~*~*

Swarms of fireflies have the ability to synchronize the light flashes from their abdomens. Apparently, the key is for the swarm to reach a particular density, known only to the fireflies, and then their flashes become synchronous.

*~*~*~*

Scientists have discovered that sea otters have metabolisms that work at a rate three times what might be expected for a creature of their size. They use much of that energy to generate heat and thus they are able to keep themselves warm and toasty even in the frigid waters of the Arctic.

*~*~*~*

Froghoppers are amazing little insects that have such strong suction capability that if they were sitting at the top of the Statue of Liberty they would be able to drink from a glass of water on the ground if they had a straw long enough.

*~*~*~*

As we become more sensitized to the effects that words can have, even the names we have given to some creatures are being reevaluated and changed. The latest example of this is "gypsy moths" or "gypsy ants." The name gypsy is deemed to be derogatory toward the Romani people and the Entomological Society of America will no longer use it. 

*~*~*~*

This beautiful bird of prey is a Swallow-tailed Kite. Loss of or degradation of habitat has been a problem for these birds in recent years, but now a coalition of organizations has come together to try to maintain and improve habitat conditions for the kites and other forest birds.

*~*~*~*

Have you ever seen a snail with a computer? Well, you might if you go to the wilds of Tahiti. A project there has fitted rosy wolf snails with tiny computers in order to investigate the reasons for the extinction of some snail species there and the survival of others.

*~*~*~*

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has declared the Marbled Murrelet as endangered under the state's Endangered Species Act. The state joins California and Washington in giving such protection to the little "forest seabird."

*~*~*~*

The wildfires tearing through the American West are endangering Native American tribal lands in some areas adding even more challenges to people who are struggling to save water.

*~*~*~*

Japanese beetles are back. The attractive little insects can be extremely destructive to over 300 plant species that they feed on in North America. So how do you fight them? There are actually some strategies that can help.

*~*~*~*

Bird conservation groups have filed suit in New York to improve renewable energy regulation there. One of the issues they want to be addressed is minimizing avoidable impacts to birds by wind turbines.

*~*~*~*

Last year pandemic precautions virtually halted all work on raising endangered Whooping Cranes for release into the wild. With the easing of those precautions, the efforts are back on track and fourteen little crane chicks are being raised in facilities from New Orleans to Calgary for release later this year.

*~*~*~*

How to make houses safe in a changing climate is only one of the challenges we now face but experts say that climate-resilient houses are an actual possibility even in the present.

*~*~*~*

Goats are one weapon that New Yorkers are using to fight against invasive plant species in their parks. The goats have been used in parks in the past but last year was skipped. Now they are back in Riverside Park and New Yorkers are delighted. They will even be able to use their new ranked-choice voting system to choose their favorite goat!

The Darkness by Ragnar Jonasson: A review

This is the first of Ragnar Jonasson's three-book series featuring detective Hulda Hermannsdóttir of the Reykjavik police. Jonasson made the unusual decision to write the ending of Hulda's story first, and so in this book, we learn how it all turned out. The two later books will provide her earlier backstory. It's an interesting strategy and since I haven't yet read the other two books I can't judge how well it works overall but the story in this book worked well. It could easily be read as a standalone.

We meet Hulda when she is 64 years old and she is being forced to take early retirement by the department. This is very much against her will as she doesn't have much of a life outside of her job. She dreads the loneliness of no longer having the job to look forward to each day. She is told that she must leave in two weeks. During that time she will be allowed to work on one cold case of her choosing. She knows which one she will choose.

The previous year the body of a young woman had washed up on the shore. She was a Russian refugee who was seeking asylum in Iceland. The detective who was assigned to the case gave it short shrift. He took a cursory look at the case and decided it must have been suicide, assuming that the woman was despondent over her situation. The authorities accepted his assessment, ruled the death a suicide and the case was closed. Hulda suspects this was an error. She will now give the case a thorough investigation.

She soon uncovers information that the dead woman was not at all despondent, that in fact she had just been approved for asylum in the country and was looking forward to the future. Hulda also finds that there was another young Russian refugee woman, a friend of the deceased, who had disappeared around the same time. Apparently, no one ever looked for her or tried to find out what had happened to her.

Hulda is appalled that these two women were simply thrown away by her society and by the police department that never gave them justice. She is determined to uncover the secret of what happened to them. But as she digs deeper, she suspects that people are lying to her or not telling her the whole truth and even her own department seems determined to put the brakes on her investigation. Meantime, the time left to her in the job is slipping away. Will she be able to solve her last case before the time runs out?

Hulda is a fascinating character. The Darkness might refer to her own past that we learn is filled with tragedy and memories of her own failures. She is very good at her job but seems to have faced the misogyny and discrimination that is so much a part of the lives of many working women. She doesn't really have friends or anyone to whom she can confide and receive support. She is the very definition of loneliness. Perhaps it is because of that loneliness that she is able to empathize so readily with the victims in her cold case, because, as we will learn, they are victims.

Goodreads' synopsis of this book describes it as an "atmospheric thriller" which is an apt characterization. Jonasson builds the atmosphere of darkness and dread methodically and skillfully as he takes us toward a conclusion that is a gut punch and that was totally unexpected. The atmospherics are aided by his vivid descriptions of the Icelandic landscape and climate neither of which seem for the faint-hearted. I was unfamiliar with Jonasson but evidently, he has quite a reputation for Nordic Noir and a number of books to his credit. I look forward to reading the other two books in this series and becoming better acquainted with Hulda Hermannsdóttir.

(I would be remiss if I did not thank my blogging buddy,  Sam Sattler, for recommending this series and this author. It was his intriguing review of this book that led me to read it.)

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - July 2021

Welcome to my very wet zone 9a garden near Houston. Our unusual summer has continued with almost daily rain. (Too bad we can't send some of it out west where our friends really need it.) 

Our summers are typically very hot and humid but mostly dry. Sometimes very dry. This summer we still have the heat, although not as hot as we generally experience, but it is the rain that has been the real feature of the season. The plants have loved all the moisture but some of them have taken a real beating from the torrential downpours. Then a few days ago we had a wind storm that broke limbs, blew plants around, and generally made a mess of things. Bottom line: My garden isn't looking so good right now. Still, there are blooms. Here are some of them. 

Blooms of the Texas sage are triggered by rain, so there have been a lot of blooms from it this summer.

Zinnias, of course.

And more zinnias.

Black-eyed Susans.

Gerbera daisy.

And more gerbera daisies.

Buddleia 'Miss Molly.'

A rain-drenched water lily in the little goldfish pond.

Native butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa. There have been a few Monarch butterflies through here this year but none seem to have utilized my plants as a nursery for their offspring.

There's also tropical milkweed which we now know is not the greatest for our milkweed butterflies. I'll probably dig mine out before next season.

Blown sideways by the wind, the yellow canna is still blooming.

 

My old species canna with its attendant skipper butterfly.

Crocosmia.

Even the liriope is getting into the action with its unobtrusive little blossoms.

A bird-planted sunflower.

Cosmos.

Summer phlox.

Groundcover wedelia. The purple-tinted leaves are from Tradescantia pallida, 'Purple Heart' that grows with the wedelia.

The hamelia is beginning to bloom which makes the hummingbirds happy.

Plumbago, possibly my most dependable summer bloomer.

Cestrum.

Pentas.

Crinum 'Ellen Bosanquet.'

Milk and wine lilies bloom sporadically throughout the summer.

This is the third crop of Black Swallowtail caterpillars that have been incubated on my fennel plants this summer. Although butterflies have not been seen in abundance in the garden this year, the Black Swallowtails are doing very well indeed.

Sweet-smelling blossoms of almond verbena.

Duranta erecta.

'Pride of Barbados.'

Mexican hydrangea, 'Cashmere Bouquet.'

Mexican sunflower, Tithonia.

Purple echinacea with one very happy bee.

Thank you for visiting my garden this month. I hope you and your garden are doing well. Thank you to Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting us once again. Happy gardening! 

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides: A review

 

I read and reviewed Alex Michaelides' first novel, The Silent Patient, last year. I mostly enjoyed the experience and so I was up for another ride with him this year. The Maidens is his latest effort and frankly, it almost seems like a ripoff of the earlier book. Once again we have a psychotherapist who tries to solve a mystery. This time it is Mariana Andros, a young woman who was widowed over a year earlier when her husband drowned off a Greek island. She is still mourning that loss when she receives a distraught phone call from her niece, Zoe, who is a student at Cambridge. Zoe is frantic because a young woman, a fellow student who she knows has been murdered. Mariana rushes to Cambridge to support and protect her niece.

Now, I'm not familiar with Cambridge, so I'll have to defer to Michaelides in his description of the culture and society there, but if it is correct, then I think the school is ready for a bit of an update to bring it into the twenty-first century. We have the bowler-hatted porters who seem to control things and the "buttery" that provides food. And Michaelides' Cambridge apparently has been utterly bypassed by any awareness of the possibility and consequences of sexual misconduct between professors and students in the #MeToo era. Here we have a secret society of female-only students who are completely in thrall to a brilliant and handsome classics professor named Edward Fosca. He calls them "The Maidens." Nothing creepy about that.

The Maidens follow Fosca without question. He conducts private tutorials with each of them and throws parties for his students only. There's no mention of any of his male students if he has any or if they get invited to those parties. None of the college's administrators take any notice of this or find it unusual or questionable. Then the Maidens start getting murdered one by one in fairly gruesome and ritualistic fashion. That dead student that Zoe called her aunt about was the first murder. Two more such murders ensue, but the professor seems unconcerned about the fact that his followers are being picked off. He basically shrugs and says, "Oh, well, whattaya gonna do?"

The policeman in charge of the investigation is Chief Inspector Sangha but he doesn't dazzle us with his competence. Mariana is convinced that Fosca himself is responsible but she is unable to persuade others, so she carries on her own investigation. And, oh yes, along the way she locks eyes with a graduate student in mathematics who falls instantly in love with her and proposes soon after.

Meanwhile, this narrative is being interspersed with information about Mariana's backstory and her life with her husband and with Zoe. And we are getting a third perspective from the unknown killer. It's all meant to build suspense and to guide us toward Michaelides' unexpected and, I thought, highly unlikely conclusion.

I finished reading this book a week ago and my assessment of it has been marinating since then. I remember a similar experience with The Silent Patient. In the end, I decided to be generous in my rating for that book but my generosity has taken a hit over the last year. This book feels quite derivative of that first effort. The therapist protagonist of the first book even makes an appearance in this one to give Mariana some guidance at one point. The writing is pedestrian and the characters are flat. None of them really sparked my empathy. (Maybe that has taken a hit, too.) My debate with myself this time was whether to award the book two stars or three. I decided to be ruthless; two it is.

My rating: 2 of 5 stars