Dancing Around the Four Sides

It may well be. It has been raining off and on, sometimes heavily, since about 5 this morning. Everything is absolutely sodden. And it's been doing this since Saturday. Did hear a screech owl very late last night -- sounded like a tiny horse whinnying in the trees. *g*

Pic from a few days ago. Layla was very interested in the peach upside-down cake we'd just taken out of the oven. :D

So this morning -- early morning, around 5:45 -- Layla was acting like she needed to go out (in reality, she was awake and just wanted to play), so I got up to let her out. While I was standing at the back door, I noticed what for all the world looked like an airplane (we live right on one of the flight paths for DFW Airport). I watched and watched, but it didn't move, and after a bit I realized it must be the planet Venus. And so it was. :D

I mean, I've seen Venus before, and Mars and Jupiter, and I can i.d. the big three of super-basic constellations, like the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, and Orion's belt. But holy shit, this morning it was so bright and so close. It was amazing.

So I finished Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah and while I really liked 90% of it, I thought it got kind of soap-opera-ish in the middle (the main character's boyfriends are pretty much too perfect) and the ending felt tacked-on. Is it worth reading? Absolutely. Most of it is completely riveting, and it reminded me in a way of Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding, in that Americanah is a story whose world a reader can get totally immersed in.

Also I am about three-quarters of the way through Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, which is essentially about a young woman trying to recover from the sudden loss (in her childhood) of a unique family member (her sister), and ... wow. So far this is one of the four or five best books I've read this year, and if it holds up all the way through, I can easily see it being on a shortlist for the National Book Award.

Otherwise it is hot and sunny. Need to fold and put away laundry, probably going to roast a chicken for dinner. And speaking of birds, we had one of these in our backyard the other day -- a roadrunner. We see them occasionally in the neighborhood. This one was chasing the blue jays who were trying to eat the dried corn I have scattered around, and making runs at an annoyed squirrel who also wanted to eat. Then it (the roadrunner) tried some of the corn itself and decided it didn't like it, but persisted in chasing the jays and squirrel. So generally it was being a dick. I thought perhaps it was a youngster wanting to establish territory, but who knows. *g*

So that's it.

We may have a red-tailed hawk living in the live oak in our front yard. At least, I saw one at dusk yesterday on our roof (supremely ignoring me and the dog), and he (or she) flew from the roof to the live oak, where she (or he) ... vanished. And there's a nest up there, way up high. So, perhaps a resident? It might explain a few things -- like why I haven't seen nearly the usual number of smaller birds or cottontails around here.

Loved The Hour last night; I'm eager to see where they take this storyline with Hector. Looking forward to Person of Interest and Elementary tonight.

You guys! This is what was in our backyard today! I'd been hearing a new bird for the last few days, and I finally spotted this beautiful girl in a tree. How do I know it was a girl? Because ANOTHER ONE brought her a long strand of grass and then they boinked. :-D

Srsly, they are gorgeous birds -- a lovely pearl-grey all over, and with ferocious claws, so I was really surprised to see they are insectivores. Their call sounds kind of like a rusty grocery-cart wheel. I sure hope these two stay around.

I'm still thinking about last night's House, yes.

( Read more... )

TL;DR, I'm looking forward to the finale next week.

Started reading Patrick DeWitt's The Sisters Brothers. It is violent and sometimes funny, not unlike Pulp Fiction.

Also, the great Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes has passed away, aged 83.

That's all I've got at the moment.

Eight photos beneath the cut. Dog, lizards, hilarity ensues. This was all just about an hour ago. *g*

( Read more... )

My poor dog. She's such a genius. :-D

Remember this post I made a while back, where a group took images from the Heliospheric Imager in the NASA STEREO project, strung them together and made a mind-blowing little film? Yeah, this is like that. Except this time it's from the Cassini Mission spacecraft, and it's Saturn.

Watch this. Please. Via Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy, it is beautiful, and astounding, and deeply eerie, and ... yes, mind-blowing. It's like ... space. Dreaming. :-D

I know because I saw one of these guys while I was out:


Tyrannus forficatus, the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.

(Not my photo -- it's from the Texas Parks & Wildlife folks.)

I scattered some more corn and peanuts in our backyard this morning, and got a fine crowd of white-winged doves, robins, cardinals, woodpeckers, the blue jay that mews like a cat (for real), squirrels, and this cottontail, looking somewhat worse the wear for the season. *g*

( Photos of the rabbit under the cut ...  )