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Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

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Their shamelessness is their super power.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Consistently wrong since 2002

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

You would normally have to try pretty hard to self-incriminate this badly.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

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We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Birdwatching / Emergency Cormorant

Reader Interactions

132Comments

  2. 2.

    WaterGirl

    I have been hoping for one of these. I can’t bear to read the regular threads. Thank you for the beautiful photo and a respite from the awfulness.

  4. 4.

    MagdaInBlack

    It doesn’t suck that I’ve (late to the party) discovered “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and am enjoying the hell out of it.
    Also, I had a tooth repaired and can eat yogurt covered pretzels again.
    ☺️

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    Someone here mentioned the Exploding Kittens card gave recently. I am always looking for good games to play with the extended family at holidays.

    With Easter coming up, I’m wondering about Exploding Kittens. Has anyone played it? Know someone who has played it? If I recall correctly, it’s best if you have 2 decks which IIRC means you have to buy two games, which brings the cost to about $40 instead of $20.

    At 40 bucks, I thought I would look before I leap.

  6. 6.

    The Dangerman

    I think we need a whole bunch of Poppy Apocalypse pics (isn’t it Opus of Bloom County fame that goes into the flowers to chill?). My pics are only of the park out by Lancaster (very good, but not great).

    Yeah, we need some major chilling. Photographer Bill from Glendale, we need you (consider this a batshit crazy time signal)!!

  7. 7.

    Peale

    Thai election results are in and the one side defeated the other. I guess that’s better than all sides winning or no sides winning or both sides conceding because no one actually wants to run the place. But the results are unusual to say the least.

  8. 8.

    NotMax

    Say what now? You mean the sky isn’t falling?

    (closes titanium umbrella, places it back into closet)

  9. 9.

    zhena gogolia

    @MagdaInBlack:

    How many episodes have you watched? I made it through three and felt I was seeing the same show over and over again. Maybe it picks up again?

  11. 11.

    Tim C.

    My seven rear old daughter learned to ride a bike this weekend. Sure and confidant and happy. I love her.

  12. 12.

    schrodingers_cat

    If you have Amazon Prime, watch Zoya Akhtar’s Made in Heaven, about two wedding planners who plan lavish weddings for New Delhi’s 1% and delves into the hot button social issues, the hypocrisies the conflict between keeping up appearances, orthodoxy, rebellion of the younger set. In short, issues that don’t most mainstream movies don’t touch.

  15. 15.

    WaterGirl

    @piratedan: Thanks. It’s $20 times 2 if you want 2 decks – do I remember correctly that to play in a group, you definitely want 2 decks?

    Also, how about kids who are 14 and 17 – would this work for them, also?

  16. 16.

    Dorothy A.Winsor

    Amazon actually delivered a paperback book to me today, despite it being Sunday. One of the member services people brought it up to my front door. I should have asked if it arrived by drone.

  17. 17.

    NotMax

    @MagdaInBlack

    Fun stuff, mostly. Alex Borstein steals the show.

    Came this close to jumping the shark with the Bell Labs subplot in season two, then wisely pulled back.

  19. 19.

    chris

    That’s a very pale cormorant. Here in Nova Scotia they’re called shagpokes, shags for short. I’ll just leave that here.

  20. 20.

    Major Major Major Major

    I made it back to America alive!

    And I’ve been invited to contribute five short stories to an anthology this year, one solo and the rest in a round-robin collaboration with four other authors, so that should be pretty interesting.

    I’ve sort of been on a mini news blackout all weekend and will probably continue down that road.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    @frosty: No — took the photo from a boat about half a mile upriver. Saw all kinds of critters, including all manner of herons, an osprey, a red-shouldered hawk, a pair of noisy Sandhill cranes and a big old gator!

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    @zhena gogolia

    Yeah, there is that, as it could be subtitled Neuroses On Parade. Personally found enough diverting (the cars, the fashions, the interior decoration) to enable navigating the rapids of repetition.

    ;)

  23. 23.

    MagdaInBlack

    @zhena gogolia:
    I’m into season 2 episode 2.
    I’m not getting the repetition feeling, altho there is some predictability to it.
    I don’t mind, I’m escaping from the current state of the world.
    I was born in ’58, I remember my mothers sewing patterns and they were straight out of that era. I love the clothes. ☺️

  26. 26.

    Yutsano

    BIRB!!!

    Walking is getting a bit better. I still am getting tired easily but for the most part it’s on the upswing. And of course the fact that I can drive again is a double plus good.

    I also play a game called HQ Trivia and tonight’s theme is Disney villains. If I don’t rock this I’m gonna hang up my Disney cred in shame. And Mnemosyme will never let me live it down.

  27. 27.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    I can’t wait for the Kevin Costner/Woody Harrelson flick about how Bonnie and Clyde were tracked down on Netflix also if you have Netflix, tha movie Triple Frontier is pretty cool.

  33. 33.

    Jay

    “Tanitoluwa Adewumi, age 8, skidded around the empty apartment, laughing excitedly, then leapt onto his dad’s back. “I have a home!” he said in wonderment. “I have a home!”

    A week ago, the boy was homeless, studying chess moves while lying on the floor of a shelter in Manhattan. Now Tani, as he is known, has a home, a six-figure bank account, scholarship offers from three elite private schools and an invitation to meet President Bill Clinton.”

    It’s the FTFNYT but,….. there’s a lot more to the good news there,

    google.ca/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/03/23/opinion/sunday/homeless-chess-champion-tani.amp.html

  35. 35.

    zhena gogolia

    @NotMax: @MagdaInBlack:

    I love the clothes and the music, and Tony Shalhoub is always fun to watch.

    I don’t find her comedy routines funny, so I never understand why the audiences roar. She just screams the f-word a lot.

  37. 37.

    SiubhanDuinne

    That’s a stunning photo. Betty Cracker! Thanks for sharing with us.

    Now, I have an odd little question that’s been bugging me for years. As some of you know, the English writer Jill Paton Walsh was authorised by the literary estate of Dorothy L. Sayers to complete the novel Thrones, Dominations, a Lord Peter Wimsey-Harriet Vane mystery which Sayers had left unfinished. This passage is early enough in the book that it might be DLS, but it might equally well be JPW. Anyhow, it’s an odd (to me) little moment:

    In the little room adjoining Harriet’s study Miss Bracy the secretary sat before the silent typewriter, reproachfully knitting a jumper. Miss Bracy always looked reproachful when there was no manuscript for her to get on with. She was a quick and efficient worker, and it was very difficult to keep her supplied.

    Cormorant! thought Harriet. She lit a fresh cigarette and squared her elbows, preparing to tackle afresh her detailed and scientific description of a ten-day-old corpse as it appeared when removed by the police from the city reservoir. It was a subject well calculated to dispel daydreams.

    Never in my life have I heard or seen “Cormorant!” used as an expression of frustration, displeasure, invective, or anything. I’ve read this passage, and listened to the audio book, a great many times, and I just can’t make it make any sense. Sometimes I think she might have meant “Termagant!” but that doesn’t make much more sense.

    I know this is picky and petty beyond belief, but it’s been annoying the piss out of me for too long. Would welcome any literary, linguistic, or other insights.

  38. 38.

    The Dangerman

    @Yutsano:

    The Bloom promises to be a good one this year…

    Yup; I’m heading out to the Carrizo Plains (Carrrizo is not the middle of nowhere, but it’s pretty far out) if the weather doesn’t ruin the superbloom coming there. I’ll take a better camera.

  40. 40.

    Jay

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    “Definition of cormorant. 1 : any of various dark-colored web-footed waterbirds (family Phalacrocoracidae, especially genus Phalacrocorax) that have a long neck, hooked bill, and distensible throat pouch. 2 : a gluttonous, greedy, or rapacious person.”

  43. 43.

    Juice Box

    I saw a pair of western bluebirds on my roof so I put up a blubird box on a nearby, secluded post. Somebody has clearly moved in given the amount of dry grass sticking out of the hole now, but from the very brief glimpse of bird butt that I saw, it’s not a bluebird couple. Better luck next year.

  45. 45.

    Yutsano

    @SiubhanDuinne: @Jay: I…have never heard this definition before. And I say this as someone who has seen cormorants pretty much all my life. It’s interesting to only learn this now.

  46. 46.

    MoxieM

    What a lovely picture of a lovely bird. I have been sick sick sicker for most of the last week, and wouldn’t ya know, the upstairs toilet tank is leaking (the one near the bedrooms, yay.) It’s just water. But of all the times I wanted that particular unit to work, well, I’ll leave it at that. Plumber comes tomorrow. I am w-a-y too sick to even look at news, thanks to the cosmos. Perhaps by the time Nancy turns it around I’ll be on the mend. Meantime I will be happy to look at all the bird pix, puppy pix, kitty pix and duck videos anyone cares to post. Baby elephants are good too.

  47. 47.

    Mandarama

    @WaterGirl: I polled my 14- and 17-year-old boys for you, and they said YES, “Exploding Kittens is awesome, and she only needs 1 deck for up to 5 players, but if there are more than that get two. Also, one is a lot funnier but rated NSFW.”

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jay:

    Hmm, interesting. Have never seen that second definition, and I know I looked it up some time in the past (although not recently). I guess that must be what Harriet/DLS/JPW had in mind.

    I still find it odd, but I’ll get on with my life now. Many thanks.

  49. 49.

    Jay

    @Juice Box:

    Around here, you need large meadows and a clean bluebird box at a height of 4 feet in open ground to get a nesting couple.

  51. 51.

    RedDirtGirl

    I’m part of a bluegrass community in Brooklyn, with regular Saturday night jams, and over the years, as friends have settled down/had kids, they’ve drifted away. Well, last month I organized a “parent-friendly” Sunday afternoon jam and it was a big hit. We are continuing it bi-monthly, going forward. I am very pleased with myself!

  52. 52.

    Mnemosyne

    In the realm of Things That Don’t Suck, I think I’ve finally decided to take a birthday trip I’ve been wanting to take for a long time and will be heading up to Portland (OR) in June via the Coast Starlight. Since this will be a splurge for my 50th (that’s right!) birthday, I’m going to get one of the bedrooms so I can have some privacy and not have to sleep in a regular seat in a train car full of strangers.

    I’m only going as far as Portland because I want to see my favorite otter Lincoln at the Oregon Zoo, plus all of the other attractions of the city, like Powell’s Books. I’m going to stay for a couple of days and then fly back.

    G’s not into trains, so I’m going to do the train part solo, but he may fly up for the weekend part if his new work schedule permits. (We’re waiting for the formal written offer for a cool job that would start in May.)

  53. 53.

    Mandarama

    I’m trying to be grateful despite the worry and the constant barrage that comprises the news these days. My oldest kid got into all but one of the schools he applied to! And now he is trying to choose between the University of Chicago and Harvey Mudd, two really different experiences. (We want him to pick Chicago b/c it’s only 8 hours as opposed to all the way across the country, plus it’s cheaper. But we are trying to just let him work it out.)

    My 9th grader made the baseball team and I’m grateful because it gives him structure, nice older kids as role models, and helps make him too tired to be as angsty and annoying. I wouldn’t want to relive 14 myself, and it’s not my favorite age to parent either.

    @Tim C.: I love this story. I miss their littler days, but honestly I still really like my kids! I am sad about the oldest one leaving home this fall.

  54. 54.

    Jay

    @Yutsano:
    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It’s an “englishism” back when swearing was much less common, and the behaviours of animals such a feeding behaviours were commonly used to slang people.

    Cormorants were also “villified” in the amorthroprised naturism of the age, “greasy”, “greedy”, “gluttony” by commercial fishermen, sport fishermen, beachgoers, yachtsmen and even biologists who should have known better.

  55. 55.

    The Dangerman

    @Mnemosyne:

    …Portland (OR) in June via the Coast Starlight.

    The CS hits Shasta right around sunrise; it can be spectacular.

    There are other spectacular spots but I don’t wanna spoil the surprises (just the one that isn’t talked about much).

  57. 57.

    Mandarama

    P.S. No persons were bribed in the making of this future college student.

    (Privilege to retake the ACT after a prep course was exercised, though, along with other middle-class features that I try to remind them are NOT universal. I came from rural poor so it all sits weirdly on me.)

  59. 59.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Sounds like a great trip, and I envy you! I love trains, and Portland is a wonderful, human-friendly city. I’ve been there only twice but both trips I spent many happy hours at Powell’s. There are also quite a few nice vineyards in the area, and if you have time and like wine, a tour would make a nice birthday side trip!

  63. 63.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Mnemosyne: That sounds like fun. I love trains. There was an old Indian TV show from the late eighties made by Shyam Benegal who has also made some great movies called Yatra (Journey) about two train journeys that span India, one that goes east to west (Mumbai to Calcutta) and other from north to south (Pathankot in Jammu and Kashmir to Kanya Kumari, India’s southern tip)

  65. 65.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @NotMax: I watched most of season 1, I definitely thought every episode could have been trimmed by a few minutes. Less Mrs Maisel, more Alex Boorstein and maybe the other supporting players

  67. 67.

    Tim C.

    @RedDirtGirl: Over at the asphalt playground at a school that’s used as an office now. Perfect big area and flat as a tabletop. Bonus, she spent most of the hour riding around with her mouth open and tongue out in joy.

  70. 70.

    Mary G

    After issuing a few rageful tweets, with typos, I made myself go out to the garden and it was an excellent decision.

    Your photo is spectacular, BC. I love the light and dark green layers of foliage and it reminds me both of Claude Monet and Apocalypse Now.

  74. 74.

    Gelfling 545

    @SiubhanDuinne: Makes me crazy when I find things like that. Though I did get an obviously unintended chuckle when the heroine of a vampire novel I once read attacked the evil one with a …steak.

  78. 78.

    ola azul

    @Betty Cracker:

    What I wanna know — if present on your riverine journey, did the mister show you some fish?

    Years ago, a buddy and his two boys and I went canoe-camping for about a week on the Peace River (Gardener to Arcadia stretch). Many wonderful memories of that trip (lotta sharks teeth to be found in the river banks! great fun; plus, gators aplenty, bass, bream, catfish and … snook!)

    Still get (undeserved, but I’ll take ’em) hero accolades for preserving my buddy’s fish-crazy boy’s catch of a catfish by diving outta the canoe and into a deepish pool to extricate his line from an underwater branch.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    My maternal grandfather was a train conductor, so I come by it honestly. ? I’ll have to see if the county library has either of those movies, though I need to return my overdue books to them first.

    @Yutsano:

    I would love that, but nothing must interfere with my trip to the Oregon Zoo so I can watch as a sea weasel swims around too far away for me to get a good photo. I still need to ask for the days off work, but it would probably be mid-June.

  80. 80.

    Amir Khalid

    I had a bit of a freakout just now when I got on the internets and found ads all over YouTube. Apparently AdBlock had forgotten a setting: I had to remind it that I normally have all ads in English blocked.

  84. 84.

    FlyingToaster

    My fingers feel like they’re full of holes, but the Greek Goddess costume for WarriorGirl’s presentation* is done. She presents on Wednesday, and then the Class Breakfast is on Thursday, with my contribution of Tiropitakia (~20 savory, ~24 sweet).

    * She’s playing Eris. As in “I started the Trojan War with this apple”. Black-n-Gold dress, black hooded cape. Taupe sandals.

  85. 85.

    Chris Johnson

    @Major Major Major Major: Hoo boy are you right about that :D trust me, there’s nothing worth seeing on ‘the media’ right now. One day we’ll know more about what’s happening, but for now think of it as a full court troll press.

    Best stick with the emergency cormorant. I am certainly not going to seek out any ‘news’ right now.

  86. 86.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    I’m planning a train journey for after I retire.
    Coast Starlight to Seattle
    Vancouver to Montreal on the trans Canadian
    Amtrak to DC
    The Wall and Smithsonian and whatever else comes to mind at the time
    Probably fly back.

  87. 87.

    rekoob

    @Mandarama: Two fine choices! I did my graduate work at Chicago and loved it, although the weather can be a bit grim. Harvey Mudd is pretty amazing, too. For those looking beyond the Ivies and their next-of-kin, I always suggest the Colleges That Change Lives list, roughly 40 schools around the country that can offer wonderful experiences for undergraduates (full disclosure: I went to one of the CTCL schools for my BA; it prepared me well for Chicago and beyond).

  89. 89.

    KrakenJack

    @Tim C.: Good for her! It’s great habit to pickup. I learned the hard way – just me and a cousin’s oversized bike on a concrete road. I had a chance to teach a neighbor’s kid going on ten years ago. Some internet research recommended starting out on a very shallow grassy slope. No pedaling to start just balance and steering. Once they have that down, add in pedaling. Worked like a charm. No falls that day. That came later with overconfidence.

  90. 90.

    ola azul

    @Jay:

    … Cormorants were also “villified” in the amorthroprised naturism of the age, “greasy”, “greedy”, “gluttony” by commercial fishermen, sport fishermen, beachgoers, yachtsmen and even biologists who should have known better.

    Still are in many quarters.

    Same sorta peeps who slag on wolves for following their biological imperatives in resolute indifference to the small-minded coterie of know-nothing reactionaries who insist they (i.e. reactionary coterie, not the wolves) are the all of an ecosystem rather than just a part of it exhume the same faulty argument against cormorants.

  91. 91.

    frosty

    @Mandarama: I was a Mudder, a long long time ago. It was intense – someone described the classes like trying to drink from a firehose. It was a great community though – we knew every one of our fellow students by sight, and usually by name. That was when there were only 400 of us though. And having Scripps across the street was a big plus, too.

    Good luck to you all wherever he ends up. As far as the distance — yes, it’s far away. It might not be permanent though. I stayed and worked in SoCal five more years, got homesick for seasons, and moved back east.

  93. 93.

    CaseyL

    Things that don’t suck:

    The Puget Sound area is cradled between two mountain ranges, the Cascades to the east and the Olympics to the west.

    There are places in Seattle, in Lynnwood, and quite possibly other areas around the Sound, where if the day is clear, and if you’re at a high enough elevation, and there are no trees in the way, you can see both ranges at once. One behind you, one in front. Magnificent!

    When the light is bending just so, the mountains look close enough to touch. Strangely, at other times they look very far away. I don’t know enough about optics to explain it. Something to do with angles of refraction, I guess.

    Seeing mountains always makes me happy.

  95. 95.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    The Trans Canadian is supposed to be very cool. If you did that trip in the fall, you might be able to see the trees changing during the Montreal to DC leg of the trip.

  96. 96.

    BruceFromOhio

    @CaseyL: This is extremely pleasant. Thank you for sharing, and the visuals.

    Got the motorbike out this afternoon, changed the oil, pumped up the tires, charged the battery, and went for a ride. Still a bit cool, but a welcome respite nevertheless.
    Keenly awaiting warmer days so I can get out the bicycle.

  97. 97.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mnemosyne: Nice! Amtrak’s website has a virtual tour of the Superliner roomettes, and YouTube has many videos if you want to get an idea of their size.

    I’ve taken Amtrak from LA to Chicago and SF to Chicago with roomette accommodations both times. Plenty of room for one person in my opinion.

  99. 99.

    ola azul

    @CaseyL:

    … When the light is bending *just so*, the mountains look close enough to touch …

    A lovely rendering of inspiring country, but, for me, the *just so* quality of light you invoke speaks to an epicure’s love of the fleeting magic of ephemeral moments.

    Blink and you can miss ’em, gotta open heart n they’re yours to savor.

  100. 100.

    RedDirtGirl

    @HeleninEire: Absolutely! I’ve been wanting to have a gathering for ages. M4 seems to travel a lot, but I’m hoping he’ll join us, and LAO and others have expressed interest. Let’s build up some chatter about it, and then I’ll ask Anne Laurie to post something.

  101. 101.

    Redshift

    I’ve been getting a lot done around the house this weekend, because for once I don’t really want to pay attention to the news…

  102. 102.

    Mainmata

    I’ve never seen a white cormorant. All the ones I’ve ever seen were dark grey/black. Cool.

  106. 106.

    Mike in Oly

    @CaseyL: I’m between the mountain ranges too and never get tired of seeing them. We’ve had beautiful weather this past week. Love seeing spring burst into view as the flowers and leaves get revved up.

  107. 107.

    Mandarama

    @rekoob: I went to a school on that list, too! Centre College in KY. It gave me a great foundation for grad school too, but the main way it changed my life is that I met my husband there. We are from the 2 Americas—he’s a NE prep school guy and I’m from a long line of rednecks from MS. So we met in the middle, I reckon. Which was your alma mater?

    The weather is one of the big differences for sure. It’s hard to beat SoCal from what I’ve heard.

  108. 108.

    Mandarama

    @frosty: Thanks so much! Yes, the current take on Mudd is that it’s intense as hell, but a supportive community. I went to a tiny college myself so I love them…there are pros and cons to both places.( Of course, when financial aid is finalized, that may settle matters for us all.)

  109. 109.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Tim C.:

    My seven rear old daughter

    That puts Monty Python’s “man with three buttocks” distinctly in the shade.

  113. 113.

    Barbara

    @Tim C.: I read comments like yours and think back to how much I loved being a parent of young children. The joy in nearly everything is multiplied by the wonder of someone who is doing it for the first time.

  118. 118.

    cope

    Just the other day, I saw my very first bluebird. I was out lopping branches off our crepe myrtle and the little critter landed on the neighbor’s driveway just a dozen or so feet away from me. He hopped around long enough for me to get a good look and be able to identify him online as an Eastern bluebird. No camera, no phone so no pic, even a lousy one.

    I have been copying bird, animal and outdoorsy pics onto a single flash drive as I am in the process of retiring two computers. Though I haven’t had any luck with pictures I have sent Alain in the past maybe I will give it another go. Other than pics posted by the luminous BC, I feel we southerners are somewhat under-represented in the picture department here on BJ.

  120. 120.

    ArchTeryx

    @Mnemosyne: I’ve done the Auto Train in a sleeper from Orlando to DC once, in a sleeper. It was stone cold awesome and made a car trip from Florida to New York far, far less painful.

  121. 121.

    Jay

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    In the early Victorian Era, they fished the sardine and herring populations to collapse. As a result, the cormorants moved their fishing colonies from barren, offshore islets, to urban ports, docks, yachts, fish hatcheries, stocked ponds, inland rivers and streams, beachfront.

    They switched their diet up to include coarse fish, trout, salmon parr, purse seine catches.

    And of course, the sea washed their rookeries free of that white streaked coating while they left their deposits elsewhere. Like the decks of yachts and Edwardian promenades.

  123. 123.

    TomatoQueen

    @The Dangerman: My grandpa, a photographer among many other things, used love this season in Antelope Valley. He always tried to get at least one shot per season with no people in it, occasionally managed one whole hill with nobody walking across the shot. His ashes and grandma’s were scattered in the Valley on the sly, and since Mom passed, only auntie knows where.

  124. 124.

    Mandarama

    @WaterGirl: You’re welcome! They were brainstorming other games for you, and one they and friends LOVE is Secret Hitler. Thing 2 said, “Uh, but everyone playing should have some kinda social conscience.” ?

  126. 126.

    suffragettecity

    Convinced hubs that yes he wants to go to Vegas with me and little does he know I’ve gotten us tickets for Steely Dan while there. He’d never do this otherwise and he’s always been a fan. I’m excited!

  128. 128.

    J R in WV

    @The Dangerman:

    Wonderful photos, I was able to zoom and zoom into the flowers in the fields. Thanks.

    I haven’t taken pictures yet, but some of the spring things are beginning to happen. The daffodils have become heavy along the bank above the driveway, for maybe 100 yards. At one end of the biggest patch of daffodils is a wide wet spot above the driveway where I’v planted swamp iris that bloom a really vivid yellow, with a small streak of black inside the blooms.

    And some wild flowers we put starts in for years ago are well emplaced now. Dogtooth violets or trout lilys (same plant, several names ) are up in one really heavy patch, and another not quite as dense.These are the petals, blooms are probably a week away.

    Some flowering shrubs and plants are blooming, too, maple trees have set blooms, tiny streaks of vivid scarlet on every limb tip. and branch. We have bluebells in a little grove by the wet weather creek, between big mossy boulders — they’re going to bloom in another weeks, a bright gleaming blue color.

    We have some odd, or at least less common trees, that will start blooming a little later, in 2 or 3 days. I’ll send Alain some photos before long of spring on the Appalachain hillsides.

    I have started several pretty successful patches of ramps, an early spring aromatic and flavorful member of the garlic and onion family. They grow two wide flat leaves, more as they grow older. They are perennial and set out runners to start new plants. under the leaves there eventually grows a pretty good sized ball. a little like an onion. A green onion.

    They are more pungent than onions, different from garlic, strong flavored like garlic, but different tones of flavor, I’ll write more when I awake, I’m shutting down now.

  129. 129.

    Betty Cracker

    @ola azul: He didn’t have to show me — the bass were striking all around us! I don’t fish, but husband and daughter both do.

  132. 132.

    JAFD

    @WaterGirl: You probably already know about BoardgameGeek.com. which is, well, the ‘game geeks’ game site. Will tell you a lot about every game extant, and you may be able to learn if ‘right for you’

    And The Compleat Strategist at 11 E 33rd should have it in stock, yf you want to patronize local small businesses…

    Hope we’ll have a NYC meetup soon, and I’ll see you there.

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