The Sibling Effect

I decided to read this non-fiction book about siblings. Jeffrey Kluger writes about his three siblings and about the science of the effects siblings have on each other. Unfortunately there is not a lot of solid science on this topic. That does not stop Jeffrey Kluger though. He throws out a few statistics and comments on how unreliable those statistics are and follows up with a wild, hardly connected story from his own family or some other famous siblings. The book was entertaining though.  I have always believed that relationships are the most important thing in life.  This book gives the same message.

Bednob and Broomstick

My book club chose a young adult book by Mary Norton called Bedknob and Broomstick. I read it in February.  Back in February I was commuting to work on icy highways in stop and go traffic and many times I wished I could just twist the knob on my bed to get where I wanted to go. To prepare for this meeting I also watched the movie which is nothing like the book at all. The old movie, starring Angela Lansbury, totally "Disneyfied" the book. The book is a charming story and the movie is a charming story. The book and the movie are not the same story except there is a bed and 3 children in both. This story made me think about where I would go if I had a magical bed that could take me to a time in the past or in the future or anywhere on this planet. Where would you go if you had the chance?

Cleaner or Dirtier?

Today was laundry day. Since the sun was shining I decided to hang my clothes out to dry on the deck.  As I walked by the deck door I saw a black capped chickadee land on my underwear (gray with blue polka dots). The chickadee picked a piece of thread or lint off my underwear and kept it in it's beak. Seriously? The chickadee flew away with my underwear lint and took it. Where did the chickadee take my thread or lint?  Off to the chickadee nest I guess.  My question is: Is my underwear cleaner or dirtier after a chickadee stood on it and pecked the lint off?

Multi-colored Snow

I was lucky enough to have my grand girls and their mother over to my house for a couple of days. I took a day off work because family is more important than work. I cleaned the house and prepared some Greek fava beans for lunch. Then I went outside to check out the driveway. It was a mess.  I had not shoveled the heavy wet snow. I backed my car out of the garage and drove to the street. I could feel the driveway trying to suck my car into the mud and snow but I made it out.  I drove back in the driveway and parked to one side so that my family could drive right in and park in the garage making it easier to get everyone in the house with all their stuff. Then I saw that the undercarriage of my car had left a mark in the snow. I knew her rental car was a low car too although probably not as low as mine. So I got out the shovel (AGAIN) and starting in to removing some of the snow. The snow was weird. On top was a gray layer of rain. Below that was a pinkish orange layer about an inch thick and below that was another three inches of pure white snow. I thought I was seeing things. Why was I shoveling snow that was multicolored? I took my glasses off and looked again. The snow was still striped with a pinkish/orange layer in the middle. I shrugged my shoulders and proceeded shoveling. I shoveled for an hour. That was my workout for the day. I went back into the house. When I got the text message that my guests were soon to arrive I went outside again. I stood by the mailbox. When the black car with Florida license plates arrived I told her to drive in fast and confidently and pull right into the garage. Yeah, no, that is not how it went. She got stuck by the third hack berry tree.  I got some pieces of wood and carpet and chicken grit and got her unstuck. She got stuck again by my elm tree. I was leaning my back against the trunk and pushing with my legs when she got unstuck and fell on my butt in the mud.  The third time she got stuck she suggested we just leave it here for now and I agreed. We bundled everybody and everything into the house and had a lunch of venison summer sausage, fava beans, crackers, vegies, hummus and fruit. After lunch I took the grandgirls outside to go sledding while their mother could have some time to herself. I got both kids in the blue power ranger sled I had in my garage. I told them to hang on. I pulled the sled forward around the corner of the house.  The oldest grandgirl was laughing.  I turned around to look and I saw the giggling girl in the sled and the younger grandgirl laying in the snow five feet back like a turtle on it's back.  I advised them to let me know when this happened.  I put her back in the sled.  The same thing happened three more times. The younger one fell out and laid there silently in the snow while the older one giggled. Finally I started walking backwards while pulling the sled so I could see what was going on.  I walked backward and we walked through the woods with both kids staying in the sled. We walked past the chicken coop and said hello to the chickens. I checked and found 3 eggs. I showed the eggs to the girls.  The youngest one said, "Kaka."  I agreed that there was kaka on these eggs. I told the girls to stay put while I ran the three eggs into the house. When I returned they were still there. I pulled them to the hill by the compost heap. I pushed them down the hill and they were happy to be sliding. I had to walk down and pick up the youngest girl while the older one pulled the sled back up. They went down the hill at least ten times. The youngest girl took off her mittens and her hat. I stuck them in the crab apple tree for safe keeping. While I did that the oldest girl slid down by herself. We let her do this three times before they both went down together. But now we had a problem because the oldest girl kept wanting to go down by herself. That wasn't fair. Fairness in the minds of children is a very strange concept. We had come to the point of the excursion where fairness was outweighing the enjoyment. I suggested we go inside and make cookies. Well, they were all for that. We went inside and we made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from scratch using the eggs we had just collected. Children are so much fun but by the time I went to bed that night I was completely and utterly exhausted. I had learned that the snow was multi-colored because of a dust storm in Texas.

Aprils Fool

This book by Jess Lourey is the last in a series of mysteries set in Battle Lake, Minnesota. I didn't even think about the name until someone at work laughed and said, "You are reading April Fools on April Fools Day." The author does a great job describing the city of Battle Lake and the interesting people who live there.  Because it is a mystery, however, there is crime and violence and attempted murder which is not my cup of tea.  I liked the writing and I liked the book but I did not like the violence.  I finished this book on Monday and Tuesday morning, right before the alarm went off, I had a bad dream that a man was in my bedroom and pointed a gun at my abdomen. That is a terrible way to wake up.

H is for Hawk

I listened to Helen Macdonald read her book, H Is For Hawk, to me on CD's over the past week. Helen is a falconer.  Even though her hawk is a goshawk, she is still considered a falconers because falconers hunt with birds of prey. Helen trained Mabel, a goshawk, how to hunt for rabbits and pheasants. Training a goshawk is no easy task as goshawks are temperamental and aloof. The story of the relationship between Helen and Mabel is fascinating.  Being a falconer takes up huge amounts of time and energy and expense. Building trust with a hawk is time consuming and it takes a vast amount of problem solving to get it done. I admire falconers but I know I do not have the commitment it would take. This was a very interesting and informative book.

FOY

On my excursions and errands of the past few days I have seen a good number of FOYs (first of the year) bird sightings.  Yesterday, on Moore Lake in Fridley I was so happy to see a pair of loons; so happy in fact I yodeled like a loon in my car. Later, at Vadnais Lake I saw blue winged teal, a great white egret, and gadwall ducks.  I am pretty sure I saw a pied billed grebe there too. A man I talked to (because he had binoculars around his  neck) said he spied a flock of thirty white pelicans flying high overhead as he drove into the park. Later I went to watch the sun sink below the horizon at Keller Lake in Saint Paul. As I walked on the board walk near Highway 36 I saw a huge eagle sitting in a tree. Someone had to point it out to me but still, I saw it. Some men were fishing and I thought I saw a  muskrat swim by. As I passed the men and looked over the railing a huge splash startled me. I had scared a beaver.  The men explained that what I had seen before were actually two baby beavers. Aw, shucks, baby beavers?  What could be cuter than baby beavers?  I got a good look at one of the baby beavers. The sunset was splendid.  And today, as I was walking around Laddie Lake in Blaine a first of the year song sparrow landed on a branch right in front of us and commenced to perform a song sparrow song. I told my walking companion that song sparrow song was performed specifically for us. The little brown bird with the black tie tack on it's chest welcomed us into it's neighborhood with a splendid performance that made us (well, me at least) very welcomed.