Author: girl

visits to Lake Artemesia

girl, , Leave a comment

In an effort to get out into nature more, we walked to Lake Artemesia twice from our house in the weeks before our trip.

The first time, we took a meandering route, first heading to check out the new condos going up in Hyattsville. From there, we walked over to the river, and followed that path north to the lake. On that route, past Linson Pool and up behind the College Park airport, we had several good wildlife sightings. Just beyond East-West highway, I finally spotted and identified a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, a new life bird. My birding acquaintance had been hearing them nearly every time we were out together, but I hadn’t gotten a good glimpse of one. As we were making our way around the back of the airport, we came across the largest muskrats we’d ever seen chomping away in the grass. Initially we thought it was a groundhog, but as it scuttled off it definitely had the long skinny tail of a muskrat. Finally, once we’d rested and made our way around the lake, we came across a doe on the path back to Paint Branch.

Our second walk to Lake Artemesia was both more direct and less eventful. From our town, we walked to Rhode Island Avenue in College Park and north, crossing Paint Branch to the path where we saw the deer. We brought an early dinner, and had a small picnic on a bench. We saw plenty of birds, although no entirely new ones for me. I did spot a Common Yellowthroat, which I’d only seen a few times before, entirely by accident as I was tracking some Song Sparrows through a bush.

Since those two visits, we’ve been back a couple of times in cars with friends. On our most recent visit together, we spotted several Killdeer, in addition to the general horde of Wood Ducks and the local Great Blue Heron. The most exciting sighting was a pair of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds chasing each other about; I got a good look at the red collar of the male with the binoculars. That sighting marks only the second time I’ve seen hummingbirds away from feeders, the first being earlier this spring at the pond.

It seems that Killdeer are starting their migration, as I also spotted one at the University Hills pond earlier this week. That particular visit was eventful for me, birdwise, as I got a better look at several Blue-gray gnatcatchers flitting around and spotted a pair of Solitary Sandpipers (another new life bird!). The identification of the Solitary Sandpipers was my best guess based on size, behavior, location, and general non-breeding coloring (as best I could tell, neither the bills nor the legs and feet were yellow). Since they were poking about on a freshwater mudflat, that seemed the most likely species, but I’m open to other suggestions. There isn’t usually a mudflat there at all, so I can thank the drought for bringing them and the Killdeer into the neighborhood. A pair of Wood Ducks was also hanging out with the regular Mallards, and several Eastern Kingbirds were darting about. It’s always fun to see these species which, while common in these environments, are unusual to me after my early life in the woodsy Midwest.

I’ve been told that Lake Artemesia is a favorite resting spot of all kinds of birds during migration, so I’m excited to see what I find there over the next couple of months.

visits to Lake Artemesia

back on the grid

girl, , , , , Leave a comment

We’re home. We brought back 16 quarts of blueberries, already down to 12.5 and dwindling from there. My general approach is to eat as many as possible while they’re fresh, then freeze or bake them as they get a little more wilted. Rough life, I know.

Being back on the grid house-wise means being back off the grid car-wise. I dropped off the rental car this afternoon, after my final run to the store for things I’d forgotten on the weekend (rice milk and walnuts) and a visit to the garden. I discovered (not surprisingly) that my pepper plants were on their last legs, a combined effect of high temperatures and the pipe for the water to the garden in the process of being replaced. That I have peppers at all is a happy result of the kindness of my garden neighbor who has been watering my plants every day he’s there. I was happy to catch him this morning, and gave him half of the last of the jalapeños (the only pepper plants that thrived on my neglect, although the poblano didn’t do too badly, either). In exchange, I was offered an oddly tubular eggplant, which is currently roasting with those from our farm subscription in preparation for being mooshed into baba ghanoush, which itself is destined for the freezer. Yesterday I made my first batch of hommus as a warmup to today’s efforts with the eggplant, both recipes from the second volume of The Vegetarian Epicure. It was quite good, and very garlicky. I tend to double the garlic for most recipes, and always forget that’s not generally necessary for those from hippie vegetarian cookbooks.

In addition to food, I’m thinking a lot about paint. We have the paint for two rooms of the house (upstairs bathroom and family room), and as soon as I replace the tiles in the downstairs bathroom in the spot where we took out the frightening electric heater we’ll start using that one and get to work on the upstairs one (which will be painted, caulked, and grouted to within an inch of its life). The painting of the family room waits on the removal of the drop-down ironing board cabinet and the repair of that wall, as well as, of course, the moving of all of the stuff that’s currently blocking the walls. I’ve almost settled on a color for the bedroom, and that paint job will be easy as we’re also switching rooms. I’m trading down, taking the second small room as my space, and we’re planning to use the largest room as the bedroom, so it’ll be easy to paint during that transition.

And that’s the status report from the homefront. Welcome back.

back on the grid

late summer trip north

girl, Leave a comment

We’re leaving this week for a trip to see our families, and won’t be back for a couple of weeks. Time and energy has been taken up preparing for the trip, and writing has taken a back seat. I have a log of half-written posts piling up, most of them book reviews, and I’ll clear them out when I’m back. I’ll have my wee clamshell with me, of course, so I may write as I go. We’ll see.

On this trip, in addition to collecting some of the world’s best blueberries, I’ll be birding at Point Pelee. I haven’t been to the park since I was a kid, but it was always one of my favorite places. I look forward to revisiting the boardwalk and trying to catch a glimpse of some of the songbirds that have eluded me around here.

As a final preparation for our trip, I’ll be stopping at our garden plot and collecting any peppers—hot and sweet—that have survived the drought through the benevolence of strangers. Thank you, strangers!

See you down the road.

late summer trip north

Democrat presidential candidates debate

girlLeave a comment

Where my Indiana heads at, as my pal Caesar would say? I have to give respect for Senator Lugar. He may be a Republican, but he’s our home republican, and he’s one of the last true moderates. I can, and do, respect him, and I’m glad to see him named as someone another moderate would pick for his team.

The reminder of Elizabeth Edwards is there in John’s bracelet. What an awesome woman. What a powerful reminder that cancer hits all kinds of families in all kinds of ways.

As a lead in to this debate, I watched the news, local NBC and BBC World. Both shows mocked the people suggesting questions almost uniformly, NBC white guy calling them ‘crazy YouTubers’ and the BBC white guy sneering at the Viking hat submission as a ‘typical internet user.’ Again, it’s funny to see the defensiveness of these people. Do they not send email? Does their mother not send them photos of her grandchildren over email? I mean, it’s kind of true — to tweak the phrase a bit — that the internet is for nerds. But just because nerds push the envelope, that hardly makes them typical.

I have to agree with Hillary — who I’ve always liked and respected; isn’t it great (however honest or accurate) for people to be arguing on tv about who is going to be better at fighting for women’s rights. I would say, also, that what they’re talking about is poverty, and in our current capitalist patriarchy, that means talking a lot about women and children.

You go, Rev! Wow, huh. A Reverend who understands the 14th Amendment.

I took the opportunity to get my cucumber tomato salad while a couple of the candidates were blathering about how we would end wars with violence. I’m glad to come back to hear Barack saying that you can’t end this with war. I agree, and am glad to have someone recognize that you can’t end wars by waging more wars.

I’ve never much liked Chris Dodd. I had lunch next to him and his family in the first year we were here, and he’s not much more personable in real life. His brand of not-so-personable really yanks my chain. Maybe, Chris, the people of Iraq are not rushing to ‘start a nation-state’ because (1) they had one before the U.S. illegally invaded and occupied it, and (2) they’re still reeling from the destruction of the relics of the civilizations on which that nation-state was based.

Yes, women should register if men register. It’s funny to hear Hillary say she believes the volunteer military is sufficient, since it depends on those systems of poverty and inequality to fill its rosters. If we create the national systems of quality education, health care, and full employment that Hillary talks about, the attraction of the military will be lost for all but true believers.

Hugo Chávez! What an honor to be lumped with Castro! You lucky devil. Tee hee. What a threatening idea, that the resources of the nation belong to the nation, not to rich people abroad.

Joe, Joe, Joe. Do you think we’ve forgotten the whole plagiarism thing? I guess no one told you that taking credit for work you didn’t do is at the very least a minor transgression.

Bill! The relief to be able to stand up in public and say SCRAP IT!

University of Chicago Lab School, represent! I went there, for kindergarten and first grade. It was there that I was sent home with a message that I had a problem with authority. Go figure.

Woot! Ann Arbor! Note, though, that ‘safer’ didn’t get on that pro-nuclear list.

Joe, Joe, Joe. Do you think that people are going to consider a net worth of 70 to 100 grand as not very much? Minimum wage is around 10k per year; you’d triple that if you lived off your net worth (and I assume you mean liquid assets, and not your house) for the duration of a presidential term of office. Barack has it right.

C-c-c-clinton. Poor Michael. You spit out that name in a way that would make the NRA magazine editors proud.

Good for you, Anderson. And Joe. I was thinking Dennis would have to be my man in the corner to say ‘that gun is only for killing people, it’s unnecessary, and it should be banned.’

Thank you, Anderson. You did good.

Democrat presidential candidates debate

the hour of reckoning is nigh upon us

girlLeave a comment

Today I will put all other considerations aside, and begin the rereading of the Harry Potter books, in anticipation of the final volume. Tonight I’ll join my friends to screen the fifth film. I’m sure the film will be great in all the ways that the other films have been great—Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes, Maggie Smith—and weak in the ways that all the other films have been weak, insofar as they cannot convey the rich detail of the novels themselves. The films, though, are just the icing on the cake of what this series promises to deliver.

In just over a week now, we will all know who kills Voldemort. I have to say that I am torn between piercing curiosity and a bit of melancholy. I hope that J.K. Rowling as an author rises to the place she has brought her characters, but I have my lingering doubts. I don’t entirely believe that the growth in depth of the books over the course of the series thus far was planned to parallel Harry’s development from child to young adult; I suspect that some of that growth was on the part of the author as well. Nonetheless, the novel we will hold in our eager hands in 10 days will have little in common with the first one we read nearly a decade ago. Names, places, types of flying games: these will all be the same. But the core struggle has shifted—and whether it’s shifted or only just been presented to us in its entirety here at the point of conclusion only the author can know—and the series has become one that awaits an adult conclusion.

As Snape approaches the hour of reckoning, so too, does Rowling. The thousands of pages of teen angst and eager sidekickery will either be redeemed or be for naught in this final volume. There are many reasons that I believe both character and author will find in themselves the ability to do what needs to be done. The largest of these reasons is that the writing of a book gains a momentum of its own, and this series as its been written thus far requires a conclusion worthy of its conflicts. Nothing but redemption will ring true at this point in the narrative, and that alone is enough to justify Snape’s choice: the story demands it. Rowling will write what comes next, because that is what writers do, and it will be as near to or as far from her initial conception of the conclusion as it needs to be in order to do justice to what’s already written. I do believe that Rowling has become an author capable of writing the ending that is required; whether that belief is solely founded on hope, I couldn’t tell you.

What, then, does this narrative require? In Dumbledore‘s world, there are fates worse than death, among them the splintering of the soul that is required for the act of killing another person, even or especially when that person is dead-set on killing you. It is this fate, living on after that action, from which Dumbledore is protecting the young people in his charge. And it is through Snape, the most compelling anti-hero in contemporary fiction, that Dumbledore’s protection runs. For Snape, it is through the commitment to this protection that redemption lies. Snape is not facing redemption in any sort of heavens-opening-up-while-angels-sing way. Snape is holding onto the possibility of a redemption eked out of the ruins of a wondrously horrific life, through daily labor.

When Snape kills Voldemort, he will do so because he has promised Dumbledore that he will protect others from having to attempt that act. Not only because Snape is the only person left alive who is a powerful enough wizard to stand a chance against Voldemort, but because Snape’s soul is already splintered, and he will offer up that splintered soul to keep others from having to learn what it takes to kill another person. This is what Snape is exchanging for Dumbledore’s trust, the coin that is earning a chance for another life: a chance to use the scars from the abuse of his early life in the service of a different end, an alternative to using his power to cause that pain in others.

So, it’s not Harry’s life, or the lives of any of the other characters, that I believe Snape is pledged to protect. It’s Harry’s integrity, for lack of a better word. In that light, I don’t know whether Harry will die. I have friends who believe Harry is the final horcrux and must die, at the hands of Voldemort or of Snape after Voldemort’s death. It’s possible that Harry will confront Voldemort and be killed as simply as Cedric was. Certainly some of the characters will die facing Voldemort; he is simply too powerful a wizard to not exact deaths in any conflict. Whether one of those characters will be Harry remains to be seen.

Here, too, the central conflict is revealed in the end, and it is not between Harry and Voldemort. If it were, Harry’s outcome would be clear at this juncture in the narrative. What is clear instead is that it matters not at all to the narrative whether Harry Potter lives or dies. The series is no longer, if it ever truly was, a story of man against man. It is, and has been for some time, a story of man against himself. And that man is not, as we might have earlier believed, either Harry Potter or Voldemort.

That man is Severus Snape.

the hour of reckoning is nigh upon us