Bookmarque’s Padded Cell 2020 - The straightjacket is off (part 2)

Part one was pretty photo heavy so here's a new thread.

Well that’s April behind us. I spent most of it at home as did the rest of the world. I also mostly consumed audiobooks so I can listen while I make jewelry and process photos. Most of those were re-reads of books I own as print books. Here’s the wrap up -



12 books read
2 physical, 10 audio
2 non-fiction, 10 fiction
3 by women, 9 by men
3 new authors, the rest familiar (a lot of re-reads)

The oldest book was from 1962 The Zebra-striped Hearse
The newest from this year Masked Prey

The least popular on LT was 18 and Life on Skid Row and not surprising to me since Bas is a weirdo, but he cracks me up.

The most popular was The Disappearing Spoon which was surprising to me. I didn't really like it much.

More covers that caught my eye -



I guess our Victorian time traveler stopped in the 1970s to buy some light bulbs, change clothes and shave!

Sometimes I dither and flail when I have to pick a new audiobook. This time it was easy. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens has been on my wishlist at audible for years. What made me get it this time was that I listened to a Great Courses lecture series on the Vikings at it was 9 hours before women were mentioned as anything more than household goods.

Seriously.

A Viking warrior would gain stature and status through his exploits and gather land, weapons, livestock, women, furs and other assets to enhance his position.

That's exactly how the lecture goes. Many times. 1/2 the population is just thrown in there with the ducks and the chairs.

I know male egos are pretty much what they are (fragile, easily upset and the most important thing except for their dicks), but to erase women so completely from basically everything is so sad. It makes them pathetic. I blame the men in history and also the professor for being so privileged as to ignore them further. Like in New England whaling villages where the men were gone for months or years at a time, Viking women had agency, power and talent for running things. Societies like these don't have the luxury to sequester, suppress or enslave women because without them things would collapse. But does the presenter/professor incorporate that into the facts as just how things were? Nope. He waits 9 hours and then talks about a couple of women and their contributions for about 20 minutes. Then back to the men.

Bah. I'm so sick of this. I know there's nothing I can do, but it's so demeaning.

So Mongol queens - bring it on.

>3 Bookmarque: I hear ya!!!

It isn't a perfect society by any means, but this is what I've learned about Genghis Khan and his values and decisions in creating his empire that covered more territory and encompassed more people than the Romans, the Greeks or anyone up to that point.

Outlawed the sale or barter of women (IE bride price/dowery - so many horses for a daughter)

Honorifics in names are often female, literally translated Queen, but meaning power and firmness with beauty and grace. Queen Iron and Queen Hero were male names or female. It wasn’t a slight, derogatory or an insult for something to have a female aspect. Not like western society where if you ‘throw like a girl’ or do anything like a woman, it’s pretty crappy, unimportant, automatically lesser, and plain bad.

Men and women were relatively equal in terms of work/duties - men went abroad to do whatever, but women ruled at home - the yurt was decisively hers and she could expel even a Khan from it if he displeased her - two forks of the same axle is how Genghis phrased the new law.

Genghis gave territories to rule to his queens (never more than four wives at a time) not his sons, sons-in-law or other men.

After uniting the steppe, he looked at foreign countries and he placed four more daughters there, in positions of power.

Most of the sons-in-law were interchangeable, largely unnamed in the history and replaced with a relative when one of them died. Sound familiar??

The prosperity of a woman was the measure for prosperity for a whole whether it be a family, village, tribe or group of tribes - the status of the woman was the status of the group.

Male lineage wasn’t important - basically they were sperm donors and it was the women, literally the womb that was the greater force in creating a child. Duh.

Aside from the mother, it was no one’s business how she got pregnant. How enlightened.

Genghis knew his son’s were incompetent, yet he didn’t reward them just because they had dangly bits. He rewarded competence and that meant his daughters, who he not only loved, but basically revered. I wonder if he would have had the same ideas, or made the same decisions if he had smart boys.

Genghis knew he had to utilize all resources, not denigrating women as useless except for barter, childbirth/raising. It’s practical, bloodless and sensible even if it is still basically exploitative.

All of this in an hour and 42 minutes. Yay. Too bad it's the minority. Just think how prosperous, strong and vastly more contented people could be if they adopted this kind of thinking.

>3 Bookmarque: Ugh! I would not had endured that lecture!

>4 clamairy: How much written material exist for this time period and region, and what is literally folk lore? I truly don't know, maybe they were meticulous keepers of records? But given how little we know about Europe in the time between the fall of the western Roman Empire and the 11th century I tend to be sceptic about any interpretation as being an expression of the wishes or imagination of the author/story teller... Added to which a lot of what was taught as facts when I went to school is now known to be non-factual, as the (often contemporary) sources has been revealed to be texts intended as smear, or to be the wishful thinking of (male) "historians" and "archeologists" arranging history to fit their own world-view. Your Viking lecture series comes to mind...

I'm also reminded of the much-taught European "Migration Period", which was granted weeks of study when I was a kid as it was (an important part of) what was thought to have brought down the Roman Empire. Now historians think differently, speculating that these migrations were more complex and more like gradual movements continuing well into the Middle Ages: some people moving on from one village to another, not least for reasons of genetic diversity (not that it was understood that way, but animals manage that, too, without having sentient thoughts about it).

Good that you found the work inspiring, though :-)
Much needed after the Viking slog!

Yeah, since Vikings didn't use writing for much at all until the end, the accounts are all from other perspectives. Americans aren't taught much about Vikings and certainly not about the Migration Period and I'll probably listen to it again just to absorb more detail. It was interesting and I thought the presenter/lecturer/professor was well-versed in his field and had a good platform manner, but he was typical of his ilk and completely ignored women. Mostly because he could - they were almost totally erased millennia ago. I didn't mean to get all squiggle-eyed about it, but it's a slog for us without the dangly bits.

And Genghis's empire went right back to trampling women as soon as he died. I wrote a whole thing about it, but I see it's making some denizens of the pub uncomfortable, so here's a picture.



I found it the other day and even though it was raining I had to shoot it. Isn't it great?? Probably was so cute when it was in one piece.

>7 Bookmarque:
Fantastic pictures.

That is a picture that begs for a story to be told about it.

In relation to the Vikings and women, I read a report recently (ans, of course, I cannot remember where) of archaeological digs in which several Viking warrior remains were found. Many of them were women, so any erasure of women in Viking history would appear not to be the fault of the Vikings.

It is interesting when hard evidence shows how history has been twisted or manipulated.

Agreed, Pete, I don't think it was the Vikings per se. The same thing happened in older Mongolian, Assyrian and Scythian burials. White European men dig up the graves, see weaponry or other trappings and automatically assign the male gender to the bones. Only now with modern techniques are we able to distinguish without much margin of error female from male bones and many of those 'manly' warriors are turning out to be 'womanly' warriors.

And thanks about the photo. It's that kind of imagining that keeps me out there looking for old buildings and ruins. Probably it's an old logger cabin. Possibly trapper. Here's another one from the same day. If it wasn't for the No Trespassing sign I would have been all over it.

>7 Bookmarque: Fantastic pictures, as always!
And I for one would think a discussion on Ghenghis would be an opportunity for learning, but I can also see how it could be a controversial topic. SO I'll just step back.

>8 pgmcc: Yes, the viking warrior women has been found, or rather - correctly gender labelled - recently, and it confirms some of the local legends at least when it comes to Sweden.
Non-Scandinavian accounts tends not to discern between vikings from the different parts of Scandinavia, but they were both culturally different and ventured in different directions. To get a better understanding I think one need to look at them as individual tribes or groups of tribes that had extensive exchange with each other, in both trade and war. Most were farmers, hunters, traders. But the myth about the original masculine man needs a boisterous warrior, and there we are.

Later times had a vested interest in erasing women from history, and it shows.

>9 Bookmarque: I would love to rescue that house and turn it into a home! Of course, I'm in the wrong country and have a total lack of the skills (or money) required, but one can dream!

In the Great Courses thing I listened to, the Prof did differentiate between Swedish, Norwegian & Danish groups. Collectively they are all Vikings in a sense, but different enough that it needed to be pointed out.

OK. I'll put my Mongolian screed here and see what happens. Yes, I wrote it while emotional (but I also talk about that), but the points still stick. I also get it #NotAllMen, but dammit I'm angry and I don't think because I'm female I should hide that emotion as I've been taught (conditioned). But that's another screed. Lol.

You have been warned.

Of course when Genghis died, the men got twitchy and their little egos bruised so they systematically killed, deposed, enslaved and banished the women from their positions. And they fought with each other constantly and somehow they were surprised when the empire couldn’t hold. It split into basically three big pieces, but the middle one was a no-man’s-land. They also couldn’t control the Silk road anymore and the biggest piece of the world economy fell apart.

See, the men (for the most part) went out to fight, slaughter and conquer and many women were left behind to govern. There was writing, rules, consistency and a plan. It wasn’t random and it wasn’t without concerted and directed effort from the Khan. The women were necessary to goad the remaining population into line. Without them there was basically none of this so the newly conquered (non-massacred) people would just rebel when the troops left with one or two resentful men left behind to rule. They’d rather be beheading and burning. Seriously.

Eventually one brilliant leader hit upon a way to restore the masculine and feminine balance to the government and thus what remained of the empire. He would imbibe the essence of the female spirit and as emperor achieve the perfect equilibrium between the two aspects. Then the empire would be as right as rain. Brilliant! I’ll just steal their mojos. And how, pray tell does he do this? By having sex with as many women as possible. Well, sort of. They “recruited” the young girls from the families of commoners for this important “spiritual quest”. All completely voluntary I’m sure. There might have been shame at the core, too, because why would they have to lie to themselves and everyone else and call it “spiritual”? Then this genius allowed 10 of his cronies to horn in on the action. Soon it was a horde (pardon the pun) of “monks” dedicated to this holy, ah, quest. I’m sure the girls were thrilled. The ritualized rape had a specially constructed building with depictions of the acts they were to perform and the order in which to perform them. To be honest, the amount of times (ten in one night!) and duration seemed like a lot for any man to endure so I bet it wasn’t all roses for them either.

OMG are men really this obsessed, blind? They blame us all the time for being overly emotional, but seriously this makes zero sense. It’s not logical or reasonable or any of the things that men generally pride themselves on. It’s selfish, usury and completely based on emotional reactions to shit falling apart and their lack of ability to control it - panic and fear. Insane. And also insane is that we let men only have negative emotions for the most part, and raise them in complete ignorance of how to manage them so they don't erupt and take over their lives and the lives of others. Bah...I'll stop now.

Did the decedents of Genghis Khan take responsibility for the empire disintegrating into squabbling idiocy? Nope. They blamed the Chinese. Oy vey.

Have been playing with a few old photos with my new version of Lightroom. I miss laurel, there's practically none in Northern Wisconsin. This is Great Laurel, a rare stand in Manchester, NH.

>13 Bookmarque: Lovely, as usual.

>12 Bookmarque: You're not alone in this. I know they always say that the victors get to write history, so it appears that women have been forced into invisible supporting roles or erased entirely from the history when their having power didn't fit the narrative. (Except in cases where erasing them was impossible. Cleopatra, Hatshepsut, Catherine the Great, Elizabeth, Victoria, yada yada...)

Just wanted you to be sure people are reading what you're writing here.

Thanks clam. Still no place in the world for women's anger. Glad you liked the archival shot.

A few pictures of spring! I've been out shooting a lot.

Wood frog, or possibly salamander eggs.



Canada mayflower leaves -



Some little plants on the edge of the Wisconsin river -



A big white pine, also on the Wisconsin (not my yard though) -



Lots more, but those are a few of the oddballs. Not flowers, not landscapes, just stuff.

Super shots, as always.

>16 Bookmarque: Lovely!

Thanks. Here's a couple guys I met while paddling today -

>19 Bookmarque: Very sweet! Great photo.

Ah, those are lovely! They look utterly blissful!

They totally were, Sakerfalcon. They let me paddle by them quite close - twice. This is on a little creek that feeds into the Wisconsin river. I doubt many people have ever seen it so they're not used to humans. There were three of them (one I saw swimming to the log, but didn't see it get on - the one with its chin on the other) and it looked like this -



This one needs a friend -

One of them is a bit bigger than the others. Do you think they are adult and juveniles?

Just popping by to say that I love your photos,as always.

Could be, but with these guys they could all be mature adults since the size for them is so varied. They grow until they reach sexual maturity and are anywhere between 5-10 inches (females, males smaller). The biggest one was about 8 inches. I saw a much larger one on a different body of water, but it was tough to photograph. It was probably 10 inches. Big for these guys.

I also saw my first soft-shelled turtle, but it was swimming under me and disappeared. Very cool. I also practically ran over a snapper hiding in the grass. I parked the boat there to watch the far bank and I looked down and thought I saw snake skin...like some that was shed, but then I saw the greater picture and a 12 inch turtle materialized. It just sat motionless waiting for me to bugger off. It was too close to even photograph...just barely beneath the surface, resting in grass. VERY cool. I love turtles.

Me too! We call this kind terrapins in the UK, and you do see them in ponds and parks, but I think they are the descendants of ones that were bought as pets and then released. I'm pretty sure we haven't any native species.

I don’t think terrapin is a popular term here. These are painted turtles, one of several species in North America. We have lots of natives including wood and box turtles which are more terrestrial. Painted, red-eared, snapping and soft-shelled are primarily aquatic. In the west they have tortoises, too, but not here. Maybe in the south, too, Texas and down that way.

Awesome pics. You made me realize just how much I miss seeing turtles. I know they're here, but the odds of me seeing them are slim. I did find a baby Diamondback Terrapin last Spring. (We also have four other fresh or brackish water turtles and four kinds of sea turtles.)

Our pics always amaze me.
The turtles are pretty. We have them all over here, but I rarely see them when I’m out in the wild.

Thanks clam & catz! I do try to deliver quality. Here's some pink hepaticas that were just irresistible. More paddling pics shortly. Gotta get them uploaded and with the holiday weekend people in town, they're overloading our little cell tower.

and some wild ginger - my first time encountering this little native beauty.

I love hepaticas. I have some blooming in my garden right now. So pretty.

Wonderful photographs over here.

>9 Bookmarque: I would make that house a home

Thanks, Paul.

Unfortunately there are hundreds of houses like that around here. Farming can't sustain a family anymore.

Here's where I was today -



Just a cell phone pic until I can process any from the other camera. It was a smallish creek that fed into the Wisconsin river a few miles up from the house.

My wife also produces wonderful photos from her mobile phone.

The clarity and colours on that are spectacular.

>35 Bookmarque: What a sky! it just leaves me aghast that people never look at the sky.

>35 Bookmarque:
Beautiful picture. As Richard said, "What a sky!"

I get annoyed at times when the phone produces better pictures than those I take with my DSLR.

Thanks guys. The iPhone 11 has a pretty decent camera...even I approve and am thinking that I don't need to bring my wide angle lens on the boat anymore, just the long ones. Although a lot of detail has been lost in posting from the host site.

All gorgeous photos. Keep them coming.

Thanks clam.
More from the day of the turtles! Thankfully not triffids.

This is as I was approaching where I found the turtles. The creek is wide here, but narrows considerably.



It's hard to see the meandering course from way down in the kayak. I probably should have stood up at some point, but I didn't think of it. From what I could see on Google maps, this stream runs from a lake further north. The lake seems to be spring fed. The creek is probably wider than it would be normally because the Wisconsin is heavily dammed right here. Still, the landscape is compelling and full of life.



I paddled until I couldn't go further - too shallow to get the blade in the water and the boat kept getting stuck. Some of the turns were almost too tight for me even if I could have kept afloat. I got the boat stuck here and took advantage of the stillness. The grass shows how strong the current is.



So I drifted back to where I started. Passed by the turtles and then went back for this shot. At first I didn't think I could do it justice, but I had to try. It's hard to replicate what the eye sees.



Then of course I had to play in the reflections for a bit.

*sigh* Your photographs are glorious. I love the clouds and the reflections, and the way the vertical and horizontal planes work together so perfectly.

Aww, thanks Sakerfalcon. A lot of it is just being in a beautiful place.

It's true that there are places where the only way to take a bad photo is to have your finger over the lens! But having a good eye helps to show the beautiful place at its best.

Such a great place to paddle!

thanks catz, it was!! A fellow paddler told me that from a certain put in, you could get to little creeks that feed into the Wisconsin. That is one of them. The shots above that are from another.

And now a couple of cool covers -



and

Love the Frankenstein one! The stitching around the edges.

I know!!! Isn't it fab?!

So I’m reading Cloud Atlas for the first time. Only one of the most lauded books in the English language, lol. But I resisted because I didn’t love Ghostwritten when I read it around 20 years ago. Oddly, I hung onto my copy. Anyway, I’m really enjoying C.A. More than I thought I would. I just made it through the most trying section because it was written in extreme dialect. That does my head in, but I persevered and am making my way back through the timeline to the beginning. We’ll see if I like it as much when it ends.

Between this and the ebook I have going (Cartwheel by Jennifer Dubois), I’m finally back into reading for the first time in a few months. It’s a nice feeling to have hours disappear as I work my way through the stories. No guilt that I should be doing something else. No pesky brain ratcheting around looking for distraction. No annoying authorial antics that make me want to stop reading. I think it’s going to be warm enough to sit on the deck and do it again.

>48 Bookmarque: The only reason I didn't give Cload Atlas a 5* rating was because of how much trouble I had reading that opening segment. I really should get on to reading more of his works.

>48 Bookmarque: >49 AHS-Wolfy: I loved Cloud Atlas. I didn't read the novel until after watching the movie though. It was, for me, one of those "2001: A Space Odyssey" experiences. I first watched 2001 in theaters when I was a kid and had little idea of what was going on in the film. Monkey men? Moon-based archaeology? Rogue AI? Wormhole journey to a surrealist deathbed scene? A giant foetus? All connected by a sinister-looking monolith? Huh? A few weeks later, I got hold of the book and it really helped me parse what the movie was portraying. Cloud Atlas the movie was much the same type of thing as I was almost completely bewildered at what was going on for the first ~40 minutes or so. After that the film did come together and (mostly) made sense by the end - but reading the book really filled in some blanks for me.

>48 Bookmarque: I read Cloud Atlas around 5 years ago. I'll be interested to read what you think when you finish! My comments are pretty generic, but include how I felt about the end (without describing it), so I’m going to put them in spoiler tags. That way you can ignore them and not risk having your own opinions contaminated before you finish it yourself. Although I enjoyed reading it quite a bit, I think I was expecting it to all tie up into some amazingly clever picture. I understood the connection between the stories, but I thought it would somehow end up as something less subtle. I'm not entirely sure what I was expecting, but I think because of all the praise I'd seen for this book and the author in general I was just expecting something that would blow my mind.

>49 AHS-Wolfy: The only other book of his I've read so far is Slade House and I enjoyed that one quite a bit.

>50 ScoLgo: We may have talked about this before because the conversation sounds familiar, but I watched the movie immediately after finishing the book and wondered how on earth anybody could possibly understand it if they hadn’t read the book. It was completely not what I expected, and I found myself half wishing I had seen the movie first just so I could find out if I would have understood it!

I'm aware of the movie, but haven't seen it. Am on the 2nd Letters from Zedelghem section now, almost the end.

>51 YouKneeK: Yeah, I have posted about my movie/book experiences before. I used to always read books first and then watch the movie but I have changed that approach in recent years and now try to see a film first whenever possible. I find that I enjoy the additional detail that books provide even though the story is already familiar. I don't view it as a spoiler because the medium is so different. Plus, I only pick up books from movies that I liked so it helps winnow down the TBR and actually saves me time. If I spend 90 to 180 minutes watching a movie and I didn't really like it, I know not to waste more time on the book.

>52 Bookmarque: In the case of Cloud Atlas, the movie delivers the story in a very different manner from the book. I really enjoyed the way the same actors appeared in various roles throughout the film. If you end up liking the book, I highly recommend the movie. Of the six narratives, which one has been your favorite so far?

To date, I have only read one other Mitchell book: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. I liked it but not as much as I did Cloud Atlas.

So far I think the Orison of Somni-451 has me most intrigued - well, baffled for a lot of it. Why such a hard time with stairs?

Anyway...I like that and the letters section, too. The Luisa sections reminded me too much of Karen Silkwood, although there are a lot of allusions to a lot of things throughout. Bradbury...Brave New World...Soylent Green...the Matrix...and more I probably didn't catch.

The style on the whole is a love child between Iain Pears and John Fowles.

I've enjoyed everything I've read by David Mitchell so far. Cloud Atlas was my first and it was unlike anything I'd read before. Since then I've read Slade house, Ghostwritten and The bone clocks and found them all very thought provoking and rewarding reads. I haven't seen the movie of Cloud Atlas but it sounds like I should try to track it down and watch it.

So you read Bone Clocks and Slade House, but not The Thousand Autumns of Jakob whatever? How was that? On LT they're listed as a series and if Cloud Atlas is anything to go by, I don't want to get lost in the weeds reading them out of order. Or are they like the Shadow of the Wind books - a series, but can be read in any order?

I didn't realise they were a series! I think they are all loosely connected in that they mention the secret society called the Horologists, but as far as I could tell I didn't miss anything by not having read Jacob Zoet yet. I do believe that the forthcoming book by Mitchell, Utopia Avenue, is about a descendant of Zoet, so I will try to read it before the new book. Which shouldn't be a problem as I always try to wait for paperback anyway.

>56 Bookmarque: I have read most of David Mitchell's books. I do not think it matters what order you read them in. The idea of a series is, I think, something being contrived and retrofitted to generate interest. I read Cloud Atlas first, then Black Swan Green. They both struck me as standalone. In reading The Bone Clocks there was an attempt to forge a link between the concepts in that book and one of the characters in Black Swan Green. I think this was a bit of retrofitting.

I enjoyed the first half of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet was a bit underwhelmed by the last quarter.

I felt Slade House was a bit disappointing and led me to take the author off my "buy-his-work-as-soon-as-it-is-published" list. I will still read his new books but I will not pre-order them or buy them in the first wave.

Cloud Atlas is the best. I have yet to read Dream Number 9.

Hm...food for thought Pete. I hate it when books get shoehorned into something beyond their original scope. Blame publicists? Editors? Agents? I have The Bone Clocks, but no other books in that 'series', now feel better about reading it as a single.

I plan to read The Bone Clocks this year. I'm now even more curious to see how it connects with The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which is listed here on LT as Horologists #1.

So I finished it and well...it left me much like Ghostwritten did. Competent, for sure, but I think its reach outstripped its grasp. I could see it trying...working, but some of the stories just seemed to be there to link the others, not that they had importance in and of themselves. Hard to explain, but I will try another Mitchell one of these days.

Will think about writing a review of C.A., but does the world really need one?

But anyway, June is upon us. May’s reading round up is a good one -

14 books read
3 non-fiction, 11 fiction
7-7 split evenly between men and women
4 new writers, 10 familiar
3 ebook, 2 physical, 9 audio



The oldest was from 1975
The newest was from this year
The least popular on LT was The Vessel by Taylor Stevens (and it should stay so)
The most popular on LT was An Unsuitable Job for a Woman by P.D. James

The worst was...not that I gave it away or anything, The Vessel - it's a novella but it's awful. Torpid and full of how much research the author did, plus a smug protagonist who does everything right. Blergh.

Can't pick a best because nothing stands out, but a word about Paperbacks from Hell which was fun, but frustrating because I got it as a library ebook and the photos were stuck in their tiny formats. No way to enlarge them and that's the whole point, really. Maybe if I'd read it in the Kindle app they would have, but if it's formatting (I read it in the Libby app) it's not good. If you want to read about cheesy horror novels from the 70s and 80s and see the fantastically lurid covers in all their blood-dripping glory, go for the paper book.

It got me to revisit a book I remember owning and reading back in the day - The Manitou and for once the stars aligned with my way of thinking. A book this old should be super cheap or free and it was - on Amazon as part of the Prime reading benefit thingie. So I read it and it wasn't really awful, just a little. The blatant racism, even in the early 80s, is a thing to behold. No one could write a book with language like that today. It isn't like it might have been 100 years before, but it was startling. Overall a decent horror novel that spawned a few sequels, but I'll leave them be. This was enough.

This is hilarious -



I've read Count of Monte Cristo 2 or 3 times and I don't remember sharks being part of the escape sequence. It was harrowing enough without sharks with laser beams attached to their heads!

Oh wait...

Still funny.

>64 Bookmarque: LOL Trying to appeal to a different kind of reader, apparently.

Just wanted to pop in to say that the pictures you posted up above are absolutely fantastics - thanks for sharing!

Also, appreciated your rant up in >12 Bookmarque:. Thought you should know.

thanks B. I got it out of my system for the moment. Makes me understand the anger of the Black community right now. Not the violence, but the anger.

and >51 YouKneeK: I feel the same as you. I was expecting some earth-shattering connection or revelation and I didn't get it. The construction was clever and mostly enjoyable, but I was left asking...that's it?

Here are some critter pics from this year. First a toad in the yard. It was digging in a little and was covered in a blanket of moss in back.



and virile crayfish (Orconectes virilis) found in the Copper River. I spent about an hour on a rock watching them in the shallows below me. I've seen them before, but never tried to photograph them and I'm surprised the shots came out as well as they did.







In reality they were about 3-4 inches long and peaceful with each other for the most part. The blue one had a great little hidey hole so he'd chase others out of it...get off my lawn!!

>67 Bookmarque:
Super pictures. The crayfish shots are great.

>67 Bookmarque: Yeah, wow! I've spent some time hunting crayfish, but never ever tried to photograph them.

(Edited to say that hunting for them is prohibited in Sweden: you are only allowed to fish for them during certain times of the year, and only it you have a) a permit, and b) are using a "mjärde" /somewhat kin to a lobster trap/. But it's been at least 30 years since I last did it, so...)

>69 Busifer:
There was a nature documentary about an Irish river a few years ago. In the documentary they showed a method of catching crayfish in that river. Apparently there is an invasive species from North America in Irish rivers and we were encouraged to eat as many of them as we could.

I am not sure what restrictions there are here.

>67 Bookmarque: That toad looks cozy.

>69 Busifer: >70 pgmcc: Crayfish in Australian rivers are called yabbies, and they look just like >67 Bookmarque: 's pictures. Kids fish for them in creeks and farm dams with strings and bits of meat. From time to time they turn up on the menus of fancy restaurants, where they might be called crayfish or, if the restaurant is feeling a bit in-your-face, yabbies. There's a larger species in Western Australia called a marron, which is regarded as a delicacy and goes for very fancy prices indeed. (Australians have a minor genius for giving foods unattractive names. Like another crustacean in Eastern Australia which is called a Moreton Bay bug, or the species of crab fetchingly called a mud crab. Both very tasty, and expensive.)

>70 pgmcc: The nearest thing we have here is a Rock Lobster, Jasus lalandii. These were heavily overfished in the 70s and are now rare, endangered, usually illegally traded and astronomically expensive. Pity, as there is no better eating.

In fact there are 2 larger species in WA, both called marron. As with Hugh's rock lobster, one species is now critically endangered, for the same reason, plus all the other usual ones. It has been illegal to sell wild-caught marron since 1955, apparently, and they are now farmed. I would dearly love to be able to go back to the Margaret River region south-west of Perth, and tour some wineries and tuck into some marron. Now where did I put those lottery tickets ...

Great shots! The first time I found a crayfish in my yard in Connecticut I had trouble processing what I was seeing. My dog Rosie was harassing it, and at first I thought it was a giant scorpion, and then a tiny lobster a bird had dropped. Haha! She found two on the lawn that day, and I put them in bucket so all of the kids in the neighborhood could see them, and then released them down by the pond. They showed up randomly over the years, usually only after a ridiculous amount of rain had fallen in a short period of time. They're supposed to be delicious, but I thought they were much too feisty to consider eating. I would consider eating ones I hadn't met face to face, though.

Those crayfish (I grew up calling them crawdads) are awesome! I used to have to teach life science using crayfish. I had to have them in my room for the unit. I did it twice and couldn’t do it again. Not only could I not figure out how to pick them up, unless we caught them locally (which I didn’t), we had to kill them when the unit was done. I just couldn’t do it. I’m very happy my district no longer uses that science program.

We have a native species in Sweden that has has been subjected to overfishing and a pestilence brought in by imported crayfish that got released (illegally) to pad the population. Thus we have hard restrictions on fishing them; they are traditional late summer fare, August in Sweden is usually one long crayfish fest, with lots of schnapps and cheese pie (ie the traditional condiments, lol).
Swedish crayfish are very expensive, and most people buy Turkish or Chinese imports for the traditional and often quite messy crayfish fest. I think those taste like mud so I rather pay for the tasty Swedish ones, the one time per year that I eat crayfish.

A very effective way of catching them is by wading into the rushes (where they live), at night, with a torch. You grab them by the tail as they freeze in the light. This is HIGHLY illegal, and I haven't done it since the early 80's (when I mainly let them back in the waters anyway - never that fond of the killing process /cooking them alive/).

Wow! Who knew my little underwater critters would cause such conversation!? I don't know how much they are eaten here in WI. These are natives, but we do have an awful invasive called the rusty crayfish that has been very hard to deal with. Growing up in New Hampshire, we ate lobster when the situation called for a sea-dwelling scavenger. Not me though, I really don't like fish in general.

I haven't processed them yet, but I took some pictures of our local loon - one of a pair of adults that's been nearby. They were calling last night and today at first light. I love that sound.

And our local doe showed off her twins last night. I was on the phone with my dad so didn't get any shots, but hopefully she will come back.

Unfortunately, someone hit another doe's little one just a few yards from the intersection with my street and the main road. It made me cry. Civilization is hell on wildlife.

>78 Bookmarque: Heartbreaking :'(
Hopefully it was a fast one, it's even more heartbreaking when they manage to drag themselves away from the scene, dying in agony. Here we're mandated to call in any incidents with wildlife, should someone need either attend the actual scene or track down the casualty to make sure the animal don't suffer needlessly (ie, they shoot it).

It was pretty obliterated, so I think it was quick, and yes, most people here either carry a gun or a big shovel or something to dispatch any injured animal. If not, the DNR or local cops come and take care of it if the animal can be found. Deer strikes are most common, but if you hit a big turkey, that's bad, too. I have a shovel in my car, but so far it's for moving big snapping turtles!

And now for something a little bit happier. A turtle doing yoga.



Photographed yesterday while I was kayaking in my favorite place - the Spirit River. A wonderful day.

>81 Bookmarque: Love it.

>81 Bookmarque: Great shot!

>81 Bookmarque:
Lovely!

Haha! That's great!

Thanks peeps. I couldn't tell from where I was that it was holding out its back feet like that. Only when I got it into the computer. Funny little thing.

Here's the doe I talked about above and her remaining fawn. I think it's a little buck since it has dark spots on its head just about where antlers will grow someday.



Shot out the back window so it's a bit soft.

It’s still beautiful!
The turtle one is excellent, too!

Amazing to share your home/garden with such beauties.

>81 Bookmarque: That's hilarious! Also, a great shot. Love the deer photo as well. Sorry she's lost her other fawn(s).

Thanks much peeps. I love the nature that surrounds me. Like lately the local loons have been singing every day. Not for long at a time, but it's magical and goosebumpy when they do.

I am still loving your photos. Especially that turtle!

Thanks so much. The internet isn't too cooperative right now (summer people), but I have a bunch of dragonfly shots in the wings.

groan.

>92 Bookmarque: I love dragonfly shots. I am abuzz with anticipation.

I've noticed you haven't been mentioning books much. Is just because you're not reading anything worth discussing? Or have you hit a reading wall?

Yeah, pretty lame huh? I have been reading. Steadily and several have been good books.

Like Cartwheel by Jennifer DuBois - a fictionalized treatment of the Amanda Knox legal nightmare in Italy. I found it off kilter and interesting - the characters that is. The writing is solid with lots of insight into personality, life and inner motivations.

I also just finished Necessary People which features one of the nicest sociopaths I've ever had the pleasure to read about. The writing was fluid and the story moved well to describe a toxic relationship between two women. Neither come off as total bitches, but neither are they good people. It was a little glib in the main character's self-assessment of her ability to use people, but I liked it.

Just started Fastest thing on Wings about hummingbird rehabilitation in the Los Angeles area. I like it, but it's a little depressing, too, as would be any wildlife rehabber's memoir.

Also just started Clara and Mr. Tiffany which is a historical fiction treatment of Tiffany's famous glassworks and the oppressed women who worked there. I'm not hooked yet, but will continue.

Some of the earliest dragonflies to emerge are clubtails which can be identified easily since their eyes don't touch on the top of the head. And the tail, but there are other groups with similar tails, but their eyes do meet. These aren't the same dragonfly, but they are all cobra clubtails. They come ashore by the thousands around Memorial day and I spent a few mornings with them on the dock.





They are extremely vulnerable during this time- can't fly and the exoskeletons are quite soft. Birds love to pick them off. Easy prey. It takes around an hour for them to become airborne, sometimes a little sooner. But they're rickety and unsure and still not showing the full colors of a mature adult.



After a day or so the colors deepen. This is a female cobra clubtail.



They don't live long, days to weeks and often cannibalize each other or smaller dragonflies and damsels. They basically eat anything they can catch.

Yikes! I love them, but I didn't realize they ate each other. I used to agonize when I'd fine one fluttering in a spider's web. I'd release it even though I could never manage to get all the sticky silk off the wings, so they'd die anyway. :o(

>96 Bookmarque: Great pictures and information.

These pics are fascinating, and the detail you got is amazing. I love dragonflies. I got a great pic of a clubtail (pale snaketail) on my garlic last night. Had fun identifying it (green not being a common dragonfly colour around here) and posting it on the Alberta Bugs and Insects Facebook page.

>96 Bookmarque: The colours on that female are beautiful!

LOVE the dragonfly photos. We put bamboo poles by our pond for dragonflies to perch on. We have a large orange variety and a black and while spotted one. Those are the ones we've seen this year. Usually there are damsel flies as well. They breed in our pond, I love to watch them swooping it. That's why I will never have a pristine clean pond. I like the variety of critters that come with muck.

>96 Bookmarque: I had no idea they shed their skin like that. Fascinating and great photos.

I wouldn't say exactly that I love dragonflies, but those are fascinating pictures.

Thanks everyone. They are fascinating creatures. I never paid much attention to them until I lived so close to where a big change takes place in them.

From my reading, dragonflies live most of their lives as immature larvae.. They go from egg to larvae directly with no pupal state in between. They stay in this nymph form for 1 to 3 years and then swim ashore to change into their adult forms. In both stages they are fierce predators. The larvae have jaws that come out from under the head and stab forward to grab prey. Kinda like the ones the Alien mother had.

Many juveniles crawl on the surface of the bottom of the pond or river where they live, but clubtails and spike tails burrow under with only their eyes sticking out.

This is a nymph that just swam up to this rock and crawled behind and up some plants to do its thing. You can see four tiny winglets on its back. They probably developed during a period called diapause which is a time of rest where final changes are made inside the larval exoskeleton.



This is another clubtail, but I’m not sure what kind. I should have followed its cycle since it is different from the others. At least it looks like it has different coloring. Hard to tell at this angle though.



And on a different note we just had a loony kerfluffle on the water out back. Three adults calling and splashing and chasing each other. After two incidents and a chase one gave up and flew off. I have never seen a loon lift off before and it's only the third time I've actually seen one fly. Totally amazing and such a wonder.

Then a really large raptor flew over, but I have no idea what it was. It glided quite a bit and was almost as large as an eagle. It had a feathered head so wasn't a vulture and its wings were more pointed and its tail wasn't fanned out, but narrower like an accipiter.

Oh northern Wisconsin. How I love you.

The dragonflies are fascinating! I love them but they never stay still long enough for me to get a good look at them or photograph them.

I do envy you your wildlife sightings, and am thankful that you share them with us.

Dragonflies are a little creepy as kids. I had no idea.

I, too, love your wildlife pics and stories. Thanks for sharing them with us.

Thanks peeps. They are creepy, I agree. Especially when there are dozens of their shed skins all over the yard. Something eats them though since they never last longer than a day or two. Ugh.

Here are some damselflies to break things up a little. They emerge on aquatic plant stems just inches above the water so in order to find them doing this I need to get in the kayak to photograph them.





Both are males, the first is an eastern forktail one of many species that look almost identical, but once you start looking and comparing the differences come to light. The second is an ebony jewelwing. I'd like to get more shots of them, but they're so fast. I spied a female yesterday and almost got her, but she flew away. They are black with shimmery yellow on the shoulders and white dots on the apex of the curve in the wings.

Oh and some more dragonflies, this time a different type. These are four-spotted skimmers emerging on a nearby lake. Shot from the kayak.





There were hundreds if not thousands of them shooting around while I paddled. It's sometimes hard not to run into them, but they see me coming long before I see them.

I for one welcome our insect overlords.

Thanks for the photos... and the knowledge! I haven't ever given dragonflies much of a thought: they are not very common here, though they do exist. Creepy buggers, apparently!

Dragonflies are weird. I used to think that they didn't occur here but of course my Seek app tells me that they do; and partly prompted by your photos, I've just seen what may have been a damselfly outside the window.

They are, but I love them.

Here's an ebony jewelwing damsel that I spent some time with this am.



He was defending his small territory next to the dock. Each time another male came by he would chase it off in a fluttery huff and then come back to stand guard.

It lost a little sharpness along the way from the host site. ☹

Oh, those emerald & turquoise green ones are gorgeous. Awesome shots.

I have some dragonflies here, but not in the numbers I did in Connecticut. Probably because my lot is not 90% wetlands here like it was up there. (The plus side of that is fewer mosquitoes!)

>111 Bookmarque: That is stunning.

Thanks so much, peeps.

A change of pace. Another cool Dracula cover. I love the giant, stylized fang superimposed.

Oh it’s happening again!

A book is lighting up my brain. I think there ought to be a term for the thing that happens to your brain when a book hits your center of delight. It’s more than just enjoyment of a good plot or writing, a device or even characters. Some books have only one of those, not all four and my center of delight is a chord, not a single note. I’m intrigued, entertained, loving the many-layered connections and the fiction-within-a-fiction device the author uses to expand points that the main narrative couldn’t hold. Yes, I enjoy the books I read - all of them, but not on this expansive level.

So what is this extraordinary book? Night for Day by Patrick Flanery. He frames the story with a narrator, Desmond, looking back to 1950 when he was forced to leave the US because of the McCarthy/Hoover House Committee on Un-American Activities. He’s a novelist & screenwriter whose latest script is in production with John Marsh as director. They’re old friends, but John’s wife Mary is planning to testify to that Desmond as a probable Red. Oh and Mary is playing the female lead in the movie. Nice. But it gets worse, the male lead is being played by Desmond’s boyfriend, Myles. So not only is he possibly a Communist, he’s definitely a pervert by the standards of the time. He has plans to leave, but can’t tell anyone, especially Myles, until the very last minute, and maybe not even then. He doesn’t want to endanger Myles’s career or reputation now that he has entered into a ‘lavender marriage’ with a mutual friend, Helen, who also has a role in the movie. She married Myles to give him cover and also herself since she, too, is gay.

Interspersed with his memories of 1950 framed by his present situation, is the script in its entirety. I seriously want to see this movie. It’s kind of noir-ish and James M. Cain-ish. Deftly done.

Another device is the use of Desmond’s short stories based around pieces of things that happen to him such as one about the Marsh’s housekeeper being interrupted by two men who have been staking out the Marsh house and tailing John and Desmond around sometimes. She’s preparing for a party the Marshes are giving and calls John to tell him that they’re in the house. Desmond overhears John's end of the conversation - that she’s interrupted by these two men and he writes a story where she is forced to spy on the Marshes because she’s really a German who has flown her country by way of England where she’s turned into a double-agent. Under threat of being framed as part of a concentration camp's administration and being turned over to the Israelis, she agrees.

Both the script and the stories allude to Desmond’s situation back in the day and his life prior to his coming to Hollywood. They’re a bit heavy-handed at times, but pretty amusing and sometimes quite sad. The book pulls no punches about Desmond's sex life then or now. It is graphic without being pornographic if you know what I mean.

It's pretty great. And I have another 300 pages of it. If it goes like Flanery’s other books have gone, I’ll probably love it and it will probably end up in my top 5 for the year.

There clam, I wrote about a book!! lol

Enough though. Gotta get back to it.

And wow, I'm done and I was right. It will be in the top five. Satisfying ending even if it was unsurprising. So glad I bought it early - it hasn't been published in the US so far as I can tell. The copy I have is the UK version and has the price in pounds.

Hilarious.

This cobra clubtail was beyond saving when I found it in the grass. What a face, huh?

>118 Bookmarque: The face is absolutely the stuff of nightmares, but my goodness, what a picture!

Oh, I think they're rather cute.

So June is behind us and here’s what I read. A lot of audio again!

14 books
1 non-fiction, the rest fiction
4 new authors, the rest familiar
8 by women, 6 by men
8 audio books, 2 ebooks, 4 hard copy
8 borrowed from the library, the rest I bought
Of those 3 were new and 3 were used



The oldest was from 1963 and the newest 2020
The most cataloged (by an order of magnitude) was The Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell - 14542 copies!
The least cataloged was Bad Axe County by John Galligan with a mere 32

The best were Necessary People, The Royal Art of Poison and The Clocks. The duds were Bad Axe County and Right After the Weather - not total losers, but I'm glad I borrowed both of them.

Went up north yesterday to paddle at the Guido Rahr Tenderfoot Reserve. The only way to the hiking trails is by paddling from Palmer Lake, up the Ontonagon River to Tenderfoot Lake. Cross the lake, passing two islands, and you reach a dock where you can tie up and hit the trail. I got about 500 yards before turning back because of the onslaught of insects.

It was much better out here -

Don't talk to me about insects, the mosquitoes are a right nightmare where I am right now. They're always there, but this summer it's the perfect weather for them: wet, and about 15-18 deg C.
The picture looks fantastic, though!

And I agree with you (>115 Bookmarque:), there should be a word for that feeling you get when a book hits the centre of delight!
Such a good feeling!

Mosquitoes, deer and horseflies! Plague! But on the water is mercifully free of them.

The Germans probably have one!

Another turtle - this time a swimming painted.

Probably not very exotic for you, but very much so for me: we don't have turtles in Swedish waters, at all.
Great pictures!

>119 haydninvienna: & >120 Bookmarque: I thought it was cute, too!

And those swimming turtles are wonderful.

Thanks guys. Ready for more swimming?

Well, kinda. The kids just don't listen. They'd rather eat.

>128 Bookmarque: I love the angles you take your shots from. I take it this comes from shooting from a kayak.

I love the duck family, and the angle of the lily leaves adds to the sense of depth of the picture.

thanks Pete. Yes, the low angle is because I'm sitting in a kayak so it's duck and turtle eye-view!

>130 Bookmarque: Again, nice shot!
As was the mallards - it look like mallards: is it? - but they're EVERYWHERE, here, bordering on being pests, so I don't feel as benign towards them as I feel towards the turtles :-)

Yes they are mallards and they are so adaptable that they have prospered where humans are. This shot was taken in far northern Wisconsin - almost the UP in Michigan, so not too pesty, more wild.

Love the critter shots! Also that you were able to be kayaking among them.

>128 Bookmarque: I wish our local lake attracted ducks the way yours does. We just have obnoxious, pesty geese.

The turtles are awesome!

Thanks everyone. Believe it or not, but Canada Geese were once endangered here in North America.

I mentioned a loony kerfluffle a few posts up and here's a shot (kind of far away) of some of the action, basically a lot of flapping.



There were five of them and I think they were doing dominance / show-off stuff to pair up. Maybe next year the pair(s) will come back and nest nearby.

Am planning to take the boat out today. I probably won't see loons, but the Spirit always rewards. Here it was last month -

>136 Bookmarque: Beautiful.

Wow, that's a beautiful lake!

Thanks peeps...actually it's a river, but it's dammed so that it floods a lot of the surrounding woods. So high this year. More (better) pics coming since I spent 5 hours there yesterday. In the meantime another river - the Ontonagon. It connects two lakes - the Tenderfoot and Palmer. It's slow and windy and wonderful.

A turtle of another color!



And an interesting observation when it comes to turtles. These guys - snapping turtles - have almost nothing to fear when they reach this size (carapace = about a foot or so). I practically ran it over in the kayak and it didn't move. Not when I turned around and got close to take this shot. I think it was trying to ingest the last of a meal and couldn't be bothered about me. Once in a while it would duck its head down, but that's about it. The green is algae and if you look closely by the shell near the neck, those are leeches, I think. Ew. But amazing and wonderful to behold. Painted turtles, on the other hand, often plonk back into the water before I even know they're there. That's why the ones above that let me get so close were surprising. They almost never let you do that. Snappers let you run them over!!

>140 Bookmarque: I love that close up of the turtle. Such a great little face :D

Thanks! It was a very patient subject.

>140 Bookmarque: Ahh the Loggerhead,mean and scary,long neck.At least their not fast.

I've never heard them called that...a local term? And yes, they have incredibly long necks which is why if they get bigger than my hand I don't move them off the road without a shovel.

On the same outing I spent a lot of time (five hours) paddling the inlets and back waters.









Most of the time the sounds of humanity are gone and there is only bird call and the wind in the trees.

>140 Bookmarque: Awesome shot! (But the leeches! ACK!)

>143 chalton: Loggerheads are sea turtles, and grow much larger (3 feet long!) than Snapping turtles. Snappers are a fresh water turtle. We have both here, but I haven't been lucky enough to spot a Loggerhead yet.

>136 Bookmarque: As for the Loon fisty-wings, I was reading about them semi-recently and they are very combative. Sounds like even the babies will kill each other off in the nest. :o(

>144 Bookmarque: Nice pics,and yes in Louisiana and parts of southeast TX sometimes they're called Loggerheads.

>146 chalton: Ahh, forgive me. You guys have a different kind of snapping turtle down there. It is a lot bigger than the regular kind. Looks like it could take a limb.

Yeah alligator snappers are prehistoric. Glad we don't have them or their namesakes up here, although I do love looking at them when I go down south. I have a deposit on a Louisiana cypress swamp tour in the fall, but I kind of doubt that's going to go ahead which bums me out.

Your photos are so beautiful as always. I am longing to get out of the London suburbs so I really envy you having the wilderness on your doorstep. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Just now I would be happy to be in the London suburbs, but I suspect that Wisconsin or UP Michigan might be better.

Thanks peeps. I went kayaking with my friend and neighbor yesterday and we spent a lot of time with these two -



Judging by the size, that's mom (males are noticeably smaller). It's the first time I've seen and photographed wild eagles in the nest. Dad was around and I took his picture later, but I didn't get all three together. Maybe next time now I know where the nest is. Takes about an hour to get there, but it was so worth it. Also saw some loons with their chick, but couldn't get close enough for shots like this. It's a little soft in the thread. Here's a link if you want a sharper image to see - https://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Animals/Critters/i-rzsDKgw/A

Here's mom later in the day on a tree a few hundred yards away. She and junior kept eyes on each other and me and my neighbor in our kayaks. They are mesmerizing still even though I see one just about every day.



Link to sharper shot - https://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Animals/Critters/i-bCMGQdw/A

Dad coming soon!

Here's dad. He could probably see the nest from here, but not his mate in the tree up there. When he took off though, he flew straight to her. So he knew where she was the whole time. Such a treat to see them all.



Sharper version - https://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Animals/Critters/i-WDVqGLh/A

Fabulous! I love the coloring on the juvenile. Reminds me of a Golden Eagle.

Thanks! They stay rather dark for about 3 years and then show their adult plumage with the distinctive white. I haven't seen one like the female here with that little patch of white on her breast.

Wow! What great photos of the eagles! Such beautiful birds.

Those are some really great photos.I don't know how you do it.:)

Thanks. I try my best. With the boat moving and sometimes the trees and of course the birds, it's a bit of a challenge.

Amazing photos of the eagles! It's great that you get to see them so often and will see the chicks grow up.

Thanks Sakerfalcon - I wish I could see (or even find!) our local pair's nest, but at least I get to see them and the kids once they've fledged. They seem to like a particular tree on our shoreline in winter. The eagle tree.

Am listening to Ask again, yes by Mary Beth Keane and I'm impressed. I usually don't go for books that have been hyped a lot, but this one is pretty stunning. In a sense it's just Romeo & Juliet in the sense that families want to keep young people apart, but there's a lot more to it and I really hope it doesn't end the same way!

Also recently finished listening to Dread Journey by Dorothy B. Hughes and wow, new writers just don't know how to tell you anything without beating you over the head with it. Pure noir in all its sinister glory. Later in the book, the daggers come out and the gloves come off, but early there is menace and threat in mere looks and between lines. It's brilliant. And basically everyone gets what they deserve.

>160 Bookmarque: Dread Journey was great. I was hit by a book bullet from jillmwo for that one. She is a damned good shot with the BB gun.

As ever your pictures are fantastic. The eagle ones are lovely in themselves, but also great because they demonstrate how close to nature you managed to get.

Thanks, Pete. More Dorothy Hughes for me in future, that's for sure. Audible has quite a few of them and that's perfect so long as the narrators stay good. The woman who did DJ was fabulous.

Oh and the eagles were cooperative so long as we sort of drifted up to them quietly. When we were chatting and paddling loudly, we spooked the mom out of a tree without even seeing her. That's when we went softly and got basically up to where she was perched. Same with dad and the nest. I actually heard them before I saw them, now I know what to listen for it's pretty easy so long as they vocalize.

>160 Bookmarque: >161 pgmcc: I got winged by jillmwo's BB gun for Dread Journey because of her reference to Thomas Mann ("Gratia Shawn quietly reads Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, a book that has a role in it for which she’s perfect"), but decided that I was already so peppered with BBs that another one wouldn't make any difference.

Jill: If you read this, I have no hope of getting a copy of the book in the near future, but I would like to know:was the role that of Claudia Chauchat?

Those eagles! Beautiful!

I saw one when I was kayaking the other day. It’s always a treat.

Thanks catz! They are pretty amazing, aren't they? I'm glad you get to see them from a boat, too.

Oh and Richard - yes, it is that role. But it has a sinister aspect.

So I blew by my 14th ThingAversary - it was last Sunday. Bah. I might have vaguely remembered at some point, but...

To make up for it, here's the last 16 (because they would fit in display row) books I bought -



May 19 (Audible credit)
Dying to Tell by Robert Goddard, audio, - READ
Goddard is a favorite author and I mainly listen to his books. Unfortunately not all of them are available in the US, but I grab them when I can.

May 31
A Partial History of Lost Causes by Jennifer Dubois, ebook, UNREAD
Having read two of her later books, I picked up this one, too, and it was on sale!

June 2 (Audible credit)
The Chill by Ross MacDonald, audio, READ
Love the Lew Archer series and listen to them because the narrators are so great.

June 3
Wildflowers of Wisconsin by Merel R. Black, paperback, REFERENCE
This book has already helped me ID flowers not found in my other books. Woo hoo!

What it’s Like to be a Bird by David Allen Sibley, hardcover, IN PROCESS
His artwork alone is worth the price, but it’s pretty interesting. About ½ way through.

June 6 - Audible was having one of their 2-for-1 credit sales
Belgravia by Julian Fellowes, audio, READ
Needed a big sweeping historical family drama and this fit the bill. Plus Audible was having a sale so I grabbed this and the next one on the list.

The Royal Art of Poison by Eleanor Herman, audio, READ
Documenting the deliberate and accidental ways humans have been poisoning each other and themselves. Castles were gross, trust me.

June 23 (these are all arrival dates, but I got these for myself for my birthday)
Night for Day by Patrick Flanery, hardcover, READ
Flanery is one of my favorite authors and I got this copy after watching it in my wishlist for a while. It hasn’t been published in the US and this is a UK edition. Weird.

The Siberian Dilemma by Martin Cruz Smith, hardcover, UNREAD
Didn’t notice that another Arkady Renko book hit last year. Doh!

July 1 - Audible original freebies came out
The Roommate Dervla McTeirnan, audio, READ
Eh, it was predictable if you’ve seen any movies or read any books featuring weird and / or crazy roommates. Kind of a prequel to a series I don’t know if I like or not.

July 6
Passing by Nella Larsen, ebook, UNREAD
While pursuing a black authors list I found this and was interested based on the premise, no library copies so I checked Amazon and it was on sale for 99 cents.

July 10
Bunny Lake is Missing by Evelyn Piper, ebook, UNREAD
When I dive into CK work I sometimes find great books like this thriller from the 1950s.

July 15 (Audible credit)
The Three Musketeers - an Audible Originals Drama
OMG this was great. It oversimplifies, but you’d have to with a plot like this one and is it ever fun. I’d love it if they did the second in the series as well. All the actors did a fabulous job.

July 17 (Audible credit)
Dread Journey by Dorothy B. Hughes, audio, READ
I’ve been meaning to get into her books since the two I read previously were so great. The narrator does an amazing job with all the characters and the action.

July 22
The Labyrinth of the Spirits by Carlos Ruiz Zaphon, hardcover, IN PROGRESS
The final in the series that I didn’t have and figured I’d grab it in the wake of his death. The books weave together tightly and everything connects. Love them.

July 23 (Audible credit)
The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan, audio, IN PROGRESS
I liked her memoir about a rare auto-immune condition that resulted in psychotic behavior so I decided to give this a go. It goes into the account of a professor who not only went “undercover” in a mental institution in the late 60s, but got his graduate students to do the same. Enlightening.

Happy Thingaversary!

Thanks much. Am heading out to paddle with a friend today, but here's a shot from Saturday. I went to Ripley creek to play with my new macro lens, but it was cloudy enough sometimes to get some lovely water landscapes, too.

After a bit of a delay, I finally got into the water and before long found another friend. This is a big painted turtle and appears quite the elder statesmen and possibly war veteran - check out the injured back foot (no claws). Since I sort of quietly came to it, I was able to get a decent picture and it didn't panic and plonk back into the water. Nice.

Very nice! I love how his head is framed by the leaves.

Thanks! After a bit of research, I think it's a female. They have shorter front claws than the males and they get markedly larger as they age. Even a male of the same age can be noticeably smaller. They use their longer claws to stroke and coax the female to mate and to hold onto her shell during. Hm.

>171 Bookmarque: You make them sound like Klingons.

Well maybe a little 🤪

Happy Thingaversary! Nice haul!

As usual, the pics are amazing.

Reading your thread on my phone doesn't do it justice. Thank you for sharing the beauty around you with us.

Aw, thanks. I'm such a nature nerd. Right now I can hear a loon calling in the distance and I feel so privileged to live where I do. Yeah, northern Wisconsin. Ha. Never gave much thought to it before, but I love my adopted state. Here are some tiny marasmius mushrooms in some moss on a tree.



And crayfish in the backyard -

>176 Bookmarque: That is an absolutely gorgeous picture! The little fungal "umbrellas" are absolutely adorable. The little crays are cute too.

>176 Bookmarque: I have those mushrooms in my back-garden. I was wondering what they are called. They are absolutely tiny.

Great pictures.

Thanks guys!

My yard is full of cool stuff. These are my favorite wildflowers - indian pipe! Just found these today.

Mmm, mushrooms and crayfish (crawdads?). Sounds like a good dinner. ;)

Thanks MrsL although you'd need A LOT of both to even make a snack!

Less than one month left of summer. It goes so fast. Here’s a look back at July

13 books read
1 non-fiction, the rest made up
3 new writers, 10 familiar
6 by women, 7 by men
3 borrowed from the library
10 bought
4 used, 1 free, 5 new



The oldest was from 1945
The newest was this year
The best was a tie between Dread Journey by Dorothy B. Hughes and Night for Day by Patrick Flanery
The worst was Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday

Oh and the version of The Three Musketeers is an Audible original drama that was, while greatly simplified, a delight to listen to. It it presented just like a radio play with sound effects and different actors and was wonderful. If you like Dumas, this format and have an Audible subscription, I highly recommend it. I wish the same director would do Twenty Years After as well.

Found an eagle nest on the Spirit River yesterday. 2 in one year!! I've been near it a lot without noticing. Mostly because it's high up, but also because the kids weren't making any noise. Yesterday they yelled their heads off until I found them. Then they were quiet. I watched for an hour and a half and neither parent came so maybe I was too close, although I've been this close to other eagles and a nest and had no problem. Luckily it's close to the launch site and so I know I'll be back a lot. I'm even buying a better (and slightly longer) lens.



The shot here is a little soft so click this for a sharper one - https://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Animals/Critters/i-VJ3CDf4/A

>183 Bookmarque: Oh that is superb!

I've never seen nestlings before. Wonderful!

>183 Bookmarque: That is amazing!

Thanks everyone! I was so overjoyed to see them and am in the process of buying a new (and much better) lens to photograph them and other wildlife. It will have a little more reach, too. Since this nest is so close to where I launch at my favorite paddling place, I know I'll be photographing their future brothers and sisters and hopefully mom and dad. These guys are going to fly any day now.

>183 Bookmarque: Wow!

Thanks so much. It's the best of the shots I took that day, partly because of the wind and the light and partly because of the lens and user error. I hope to correct the lens bit with this bad boy -



It's a Leica 100-400mm zoom made for my camera system which is Panasonic Lumix. I have it on my G9 with the battery grip. I'll really look professional now, lol.

As heavy as it is (2.2 lbs) it's a small lens for this focal range (200-800mm in 35mm film terms) take a look at it compared to a Sigma 150-600mm mounted on a Canon 6D -



It really illustrates how compact a system you can have with micro four thirds in comparison to "full frame" cameras. Full frame = a sensor the size of a 35mm negative. Nice, to be sure. Great quality, but damn the lenses are enormous and I have comparable image quality with my rig at 1/2 to 1/3 the weight and bulk.

Anyway...I'll shut up now. Will be taking this out for its first field test later today. Plan to visit a river where I always see eagles and take the spur trail up to a big meadow for butterflies and whatever else hangs out there.

My Pentax also has that size sensor, but has the same lens bayonet that Pentax film cameras had, and I have an M43 screw-in adapter. So I can use all the lenses the family has collected over the last 60 years. So the old 80-320 gives me the equivalent of 160-640; the results are to be seen in most of the pictures in my threads. And if the animal is really far away, I can pull out my late uncle's 300 mm mirror-lens, which sits on a 2x extender. The result fits in my extended hand, and is the equivalent of those massive cannons that people who go to private game reserves to be seen are apt to wave around.

>189 Bookmarque:
Wow!

Impressive kit.

>181 Bookmarque: and >183 Bookmarque: Such great covers and pictures! Thanks for sharing them.

Thanks everyone!

I sometimes use my old glass, too, Hugh, but my system lenses are so darn good that I don't bother much. I have even replaced my manual macro lens with a Leica for the Lumix. It's amazingly sharp, as is the big long lens -



This isn't at the long end since the fawn was only on the back lawn, but I can tell even through the viewfinder alone that it will out-perform my other long tele. My short tele is great, too. I finally had it handy for this little girl -



I'll try to get her with the long lens for a tighter shot, but damn she's quick and wary!!

>193 Bookmarque:

Fantastic shots. The deer is beautiful and the hummingbird is amazing.

>193 Bookmarque: Beautiful captures!

Amazing photos, especially the hummingbird! Their movements are so unpredictable.

Your photos! They take my breath away!

Thanks peeps! I love my yard. Here's a little toad I found in the back garden. It's about 2 cm total length. Shot with my new macro lens.



So cute!!

>198 Bookmarque: Nice! New lens does a fine job with textures.

Wonderful pics. Keep them coming!

Very cute indeed!

Thanks guys. The new lens is super sharp. Here's another shot with it - both are handheld, something harder to do with my manual macro.



It's (I think) an immature Carolina locust (grasshopper). They're wicked hard to see (obvs!) until they jump. And when they settle they don't stick. It's amazing I got any shots of one at all.

Amazing. All of the shots. Thank you for sharing with us!

Oh, the frog! so cute!
The grasshopper looks very much like the rocks it is sitting on.

thanks guys! The grasshoppers are so hard to see. I never find them until they jump. And do they ever. Very skittish little guys since they are immature and can't fly yet. (little wings!)

Here's a soft little landscape from the Ontonagon river -

202 Another fantastic shot. I am glad you are finding your lens a benefit.

E.T.A.
>205 Bookmarque: And yet another one.

Fabulous.

Thanks much!

And now. More turtles!

One of these girls is having a growth spurt!



This girl got hit by a car or a boat sometime in the past and has a damaged shell -



And these two just want to catch the last rays of the afternoon sun -



All taken on Friday with the long lens. It's so much bigger and heavier than the other on that it's going to take some time to practice with it to have more images I like. As it is I junked a lot of them, but it's only 1s and 0s so it doesn't really matter.

For other photos and sharper versions of these, click here 👇 https://wickeddark.smugmug.com/Animals/Critters/

So some publishers are all up in arms that Amazon is too big and powerful and they want Congress to do something about it. You can read about it here - https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wxqkx5/book-publishers-warn-congress-amazon-i...

Now?

They waited until now?

Not really, but what do they hope to accomplish? That horse has left the barn, people. All the years that they’ve been benefiting from their ‘unfair’ practices and now they think some line has been crossed. But can all the bookstores that have been forced out of business suddenly sprout like flowers in the spring? Can readers go back to paying full price for all their books? Are publishers willing to have lower sales because people can’t afford to buy as many at retail prices? Will this same deal go for Costco, Walmart and B&N, too? They all discount books.

It’s crazy, but kind of interesting, too. Only Amazon can do this kind of thing, but remember - books as loss leaders was their first business strategy. They’ve been doing it since day 1 and I don’t expect it to stop. It worked. It still works. For them, granted, but that’s how business is done. Selfishly.

And they continue. Just today I went to my Audible account and saw that there is now something called the Plus Catalog. Hundreds (maybe thousands) of free audiobooks.

Free.

Granted, not all of them are well known and I’m not interested, but some of them are tempting and I’ll probably get them. What the heck. Even if I had to spend a credit, there’s no risk. I’ve returned titles to them no problem.

Who else besides Amazon could afford to do this? Besides the library, why should I get my audiobooks anywhere else? It’s a huge value proposition that benefits me. Possibly to the detriment of competition, but damn it’s attractive.

Where am I going with this? Nowhere, it’s just interesting.

Stupid spammer. Here's a fuzzy bee instead!

>210 Bookmarque: You are a wonder worker. That's just beautiful.

>210 Bookmarque: That shot is simply gorgeous.

>208 Bookmarque: Thanks for the tip on Audible Plus! OMG I'm in heaven :D I'm going to have to do more house work and stuff so I can listen to more books lol

Loving all the latest pics, especially that bee.

I didn't know about the Audible freebies. I'll have to go look. I agree it will be impossible to go back to the way things were pre-Amazon.

>208 Bookmarque: Confessing that I didn't follow that link, but am responding to your comments.

A similar complaint has been made by small businesses in small towns across America when Walmart, Home Depot, and such moved into town. It is sad, it is change, but can it be stopped? Should it be?

One longs for the small town feel, but I think the businesses who are surviving are the ones creating an experience for shoppers. In our town it is the small local craft breweries offering locally grown food items, the craft/clothing store featuring natural fibers, the candy store with specialty candy and the children's toy store with unique toys, natural items and the cutest little dresses you ever saw made out of vintage fabrics by a local artist.

Yeah, little old Tomahawk has some similar shops, but probably get more business from summer people than locals, but I don't know. It depends on the shop. The midwest Walmart, Shopko, is now gone. Out of business. Hundreds of stores just standing vacant and most communities now have nothing even close and people have to drive most likely an hour to a Walmart. I confess that I didn't go to Shopko a lot, but I did a few times a year and it's gone so...I make the drive and use Amazon a lot simply for the convenience.

I went up north again yesterday, planned to paddle and hike, but ended up just strolling through the woods. It was marvelous.





Tons of mushrooms, too. Still processing. Even with no time on the water, I had a great day.

That green is so cool and refreshing-looking!

Thanks, some of our northern forests are really special.

The Audible Plus Catalog is very cool. I just grabbed a few things off my wishlist from there - totally free. And then looked for some things from authors I like - Patricia Highsmith has several and there are some P.G. Wodehouse books, but I prefer the narrator of the version I already have so I'm not adding those, but it's like getting presents so why the heck not?

It's a little klugey to access since they filter it to popular or trending or whatever so it can take some time to find the good stuff you want.

>218 Bookmarque: That looks very English, although I imagine the plant species are different. But that cool green lushness is typical of British deciduous woodlands.

>220 Sakerfalcon: Yes indeed. I miss them!

I had intended to spend this summer traveling. Instead I have been trapped, staring at the same four walls.

I really appreciate your beautiful photographs, Bookmarque, as they give me a little way of enjoying what I am otherwise missing.

Thanks ladies. I didn't know it was similar to England, but that's pretty neat. Actually it's a mixed forest and has some intense hemlock areas, too. Some of the trees haven't been touched (miracle in Wisconsin) and are 300 years old or thereabouts.



For the shot with the trail in it above I had the camera just about where the green ends at the far edge of this image. That's how abrupt the change is when hemlocks dominate. It's like another world and I love it. Visiting another old growth hemlock forest today.

>189 Bookmarque: Drooling over the cameras & photos......I have an old Nikon 35 mm film camera several lenses & a bag of filters that screw over the lenses. Maybe they would make good bookends :-) Huffing developer fumes in a darkroom/closet while working with discount expired black & white film is over although it was fun - but still pricey! Only camera now is a frustrating Apple xt phone.

Thanks for the pics.

Thanks so much. I'm sure the Nikon is still serviceable and I kind of liked the smell of a darkroom. No smell processing images on the laptop.

I think there are fairies in those woods.

I didn't see any, but I'd buy it. It was magical - the terrain, the light, the varied forest conditions, the little lake. I wanted to paddle, but I'd have had to carry my boat a long way (3 or 4/10 of a mile) so I just walked. I really need one of those wheelie things for the kayak when the put in is so far from the parking area. Maybe I'll get one because I would like to see it. It's a small, undeveloped lake that hosts a rare dragonfly.

---

---

And now August is over and the audiobook juggernaut is in full speed. I don’t expect it to slow down much, especially now audible has a big free library for subscribers.

12 books read - all fiction
2 new authors
5 by women, 7 by men
6 borrowed, 6 bought
3 new, 3 freebies
2 physical, 10 audio



The most popular was The Reader with 11718
The least popular was The Lives of Edie Pritchard with 40 (this was an ARC so it’s no wonder it’s the lowest cataloged)

The best was All the Little Live Things by Wallace Stegner
The worst was The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (although it wasn’t awful, I had a couple of DNFs this month, but I didn’t love it)

A difference with the audible Plus titles - I can't download them to my laptop. Only the titles I've purchased with a credit or cash can be put onto my local hard drive. The others only to my phone. And they don't show up on the app on the laptop. Only the credit/cash titles. A loophole.

This is one of the audible plus titles I am talking about - A Suspension of Mercy. I just finished it yesterday and it was pretty great.



I wonder if Gillian Flynn got the idea for Gone Girl from this book. It's VERY similar, but more subtle and with less psychosis in the 'Amy' character, but she has an A name - Alicia. And of course it's much older, published in 1965. Highsmith plays with reality a bit more than Flynn. Husband Sydney, is a writer and is always fleshing out scenes and sometimes you wonder...what did happen to his wife? It starts out slower than GG, showing them as a couple and as a couple breaking down. The stressors on their relationship are different, but visible. Alicia puts up with violence from Sydney that it's hard to understand, but it was the times I suppose.

Highly recommended, even if you didn't like Gone Girl. Maybe even more if you didn't. The audio is decent but Simon Vance can't do an American accent to save his life.

So I did it.

At least for now.

I got a Kindle Unlimited subscription.

Mostly because I want to get through at least a few of the Locke and Key graphic novels and this is the most economical way to do it. I've wanted to read some of these for a while and just never got around to it. The story and the artwork is pretty fantastic and the way the kindle app moves you through the panels is great - smooth and preserves the tension and suspense. It makes for some killer reveals when it pulls back to reveal a whole panel. It's like watching a movie and reading a book. I dig it. I read a few physical graphic novels decades ago, but the bug never really got to me. Not sure it has yet, but I like these.

So far I've just read the first collection - Vol. 1 and am about to open Vol. 2 and see where the story goes.

>229 Bookmarque: Loved the GN's. I should try and catch up with the newer stuff released under this title at some point. Such a shame the TV show didn't live up to the source material (not the first time I've said that this week).

I had no idea it was at TV show. One of the pitfalls of not having TV I suppose, but now I understand how it could have come to be an audiobook which I thought just crazy strange when I first saw it. Adapting a comic book to audio? How weird.

Have read Vol.2 and while it wasn't as good as Vol. 1, I'm continuing on.

Well I just finished the 6th compilation of Locke & Key. Great stuff. I had to 'pay' for the last one - I own that one, but the rest were part of Kindle Unlimited and it was well worth it. After perusing the catalog, I probably won't keep it, but I'll definitely explore more graphic novels. This was a fun. Sort of. Considering the subject matter, it was pretty grim, but it ended as well as it could and I thought the whole thing was extremely well done.

>231 Bookmarque: Yeah, loved the whole GN series. I still have a few of the (what's known as) one-shots to catch up with at some point. The TV show was dumbed down quite a bit and made for a younger audience which was a shame imo.

>237 MrsLee: So these were your first foray into graphic novels? Picked a good one to start with and I'm glad you enjoyed it enough to want to continue exploring.

They are my first in many years. I think my first was The Vampire Lestat: A graphic novel around 1990. I loved it and then got a couple more, but it didn't take. I still have that Sandman vol. 1 around her somewhere and also Maus, which I did like, but Sandman not so much.

There have been a few others here and there, but not many. I'll have to see what else I can find that interests me.

>234 Bookmarque: Taste is very subjective. I liked The Sandman graphic novels. I managed to get the ’Absolute' editions via ILL, which were a joy to hold while reading. I also liked Watchmen quite a bit. From Hell, not so much.

Currently am reading They Called Us Enemy, by George Takei and the wonderfully snarky Ms. Marvel. I borrowed both via Hoopla so don't know if they are available via Kindle Unlimited. They are worth looking for in my opinion.

Agreed, taste is so individual. I've D/Led the first collected volumes of Lady S and Fatale because the stories and the artwork appeal. Both Kindle Unlimited for the first few collections and then not included. Like the L&K series. It will be hard to top that though. lol

I couldn't finish From Hell so that didn't work either.

And here's a tiny ichneumon wasp on my back deck. IRL she's barely 1 inch long with the antennae and the ovipositor.

>236 Bookmarque: What a pretty iridescent dress she has on! I suppose since they are her wings they would be more of a cloak. Lovely capture.

Thanks! The colors are part of why I really like this shot.

>236 Bookmarque: Very nice.

>236 Bookmarque: Amazing!

Thanks! I thought she was pretty neat. So tiny!!

So I just got a notification from audible on my phone and it characterizes the Plus Library as unlimited 'streaming' - a nice distinction, but I'm going to see if I can take them off using a piece of software I have. I used it to take things off a classic iPod when my hard drives got too fragmented. Apple software only lets things go one way.

Stupid spammer.

Have some mushrooms instead.

They are Pholiota squarrosa growing on a fallen tree (probably a hemlock).

Amazing pics, as usual. Enjoy that Kindle Unlimited membership!

>228 Bookmarque: This Sweet Sickness is one of Patricia Highsmiths better books and it´s definitely the one that has inspired Gillian Flynn the most. Are you planning on reading more of Highsmiths books?

I'll be getting to that one soon since it's an audible freebie, but I think you mean Suspension of Mercy as an inspiration for Gillian Flynn...at least where Gone Girl is concerned. I have many books by Highsmith and have liked her work for decades so I will keep her in my reading life forever I assume.

>246 Bookmarque: Of course, I mean Suspension of Mercy. Sometimes I´m too scatterbrained. Sorry about that. If you haven´t read Deep Water yet, I highly recommend that one. It´s one of her books with the most messed up characters.

Deep Water is good - I have it as an audio. The snail fixation is a bit icky, too. One at a time I'm ok with snails, but en masse...squigy.

If this link works it should take you to all my Highsmith books - http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?author=highsmithpatricia

>248 Bookmarque: The link took me to my own catalogue :). But I managed to take a peak at your library and you still have some good ones to look forward to. I´m with you on Those Who Walk Away. I really did not like that one either.

Poo, sorry about that. I should have thought that's how it would work.

Here's a tiny bee that I found two days ago on some asters. It's a female metallic green sweat bee less than 1 cm long, but so beautiful.

>250 Bookmarque: She is beautiful.

>250 Bookmarque: I have never seen a bee like that. Beautiful!

Thanks ladies. They're wonderful little things. I have them nesting in a couple of old rotten stumps in the yard. They often share a site, but not a nest. One female digs a hole and lays her eggs there. Every time I set up to photograph them, they were too disturbed to come back so I let them be. This mushroom is on one of the stumps and the sawdust is from one of the bees' work.

>250 Bookmarque: >253 Bookmarque: More fantastic pictures, thank you!

I do love your mushroom photos!

Thanks. I'm putting a whole blog post together with just the mushrooms I shot in the yard. Too funny. I can't always ID them, but I am always fascinated by them.

This one really is this color.



It's about the same as the orange hygrocybe, 1 inch, maybe less. It's an Amethyst Deceiver aka Laccaria amethystina. The common name comes from the fact that it isn't poisonous by itself, but because it absorbs arsenic from the soil, it can become so. And we all know arsenic isn't a fast-acting poison, so thus the name. Agatha Christie should have used them in a plot. Heck, maybe she did!!

>254 Karlstar:
What >255 Sakerfalcon: said.

Just popping in to say thank you for posting your amazing photographs. You are so talented!

Thanks peeps. I ran into a couple of friends today -



Parents of the youngsters in post #183.

Your photographs always amaze me. That purple mushroom is awesome!

Thanks. Here they are again!

>259 Bookmarque:, >261 Bookmarque: Wow! So amazing to see the close-up details.

Thanks! I wasn't far from them, the light was good and the new lens is great. And they were really patient until I made a stupid noise and they flew.