Front yard nature channel

Warning: This post is not for the snake-squeamish.

Earlier in the summer, a pair of cardinals built a nest in a bush right outside my bedroom window. I watched them build it, and occasionally the male would turn a suspicious eye my way, but they finished it. The female laid three eggs (when I wasn't watching) and sat on 'em for what felt like weeks to me.  Poor thing would sit there panting in the heat, and I couldn't bring her water for fear of scaring her from her nest.

Earlier this week, I noticed Mama Bird was missing, along with one of her eggs. I've kept a lookout for her, but she's gone. On Wednesday morning, the last two eggs went... into the belly of a snake, and I got to watch from the safety of my window... and later from the outside, while the snake seemed too lethargic and full to be too bothered by my voyeurism.


It had its head in the nest and the second egg in it's mouth when I found it. I wish I had a better camera. It had dark hexagons all down its back.  I think it was a rat snake... 


Silent assassin took quite a while to swallow that egg, and both eggs slowly progressed down its belly. I could see its belly move in little flutters like breaths. 


Everyone I've told about this thinks that Mama Bird got et. I hold out hope that Snake got one egg while she was out of the nest, and she sensed it when she tried to return, so then abandoned the rest. 

Here's the crummy picture from inside my house. I couldn't remove the screen without disturbing the snake.


I wonder if I put a few quail eggs from Mr. Chen's Market into the nest, the snake will come back...

Fresh lychee in Tuscaloosa!?!

There's a new Chinese restaurant in town, Mr. Chen's, and thank goodness, because the options before yesterday were pretty dismal. Lots of people love the long-lived Swen but I find its food bland and/or oversalted at best, and mostly catered (probably wisely) to the American (Southerner).

Mr. Chen's, however, has a mix of the American Chinese staples and more interesting options, like basil squid and turnip cakes. What I ordered last night at the opening, pork in black bean sauce, I found too salty, but apparently the preserved beans in the sauce are meant to be salty (like capers?).  The pork itself was tender and the veggies were not overcooked.  My friends ordered the basil squid and pork with bean curd and bamboo shoots -- and those dishes were perfect. I know what I'm ordering next time.  Although I'd like to try their noodles... and the turnip cakes... and the steamed buns...

There's a well-stocked market attached, too, which has all manner of surprising and wonderful fresh items, like lychee, which I haven't had since 2006, from Paddy's Market in Sydney...



duck eggs and quail eggs and seaweed...




a variety of herbs and vegetables I don't recognize, Hass avocados for 50 cents cheaper than at the Publix, and a small but fun selection of fish and cuttlefish (cleaned and uncleaned) resting on ice at the back.

They also had spiced watermelon seeds, which I haven't had since middle school! And a freezer selection of dim sum and popsicles and squid and, and!  I got two frozen dim sum things I recognized (with a friend's help):



I'm trying to resist the urge to go back to the market today and buy everything that caught my eye last night. I already ate all the lychee I bought, though...

...

In other news, Friend Dog is back with her loving person companion, and I am sad to see her go.  Though I won't have her to keep me company on walks, I should try to keep waking up early (for me) and walking through the graveyard (but not to Mary's Cakes, I've been eating way too many of their pain au chocolat for my own good).

We did go to the farmer's market yesterday, one last jaunt, albeit briefly because of the oppressive heat. I bought two giant pots of basil to tide me over until my basil takes off (one of these days) along with corn and peaches. Every one of the sellers came around from their tables to pet Friend Dog, every single one, and they and market-goers asked about her name, if she had puppies, what kind of dog was she, and oh how well behaved, oh how pretty, so pretty, so perfect.




Which is all so very true.  She's been a great houseguest and a whole lot of fun to have around.



And really this is all I ever need.


Tomatoes -- mostly Roma, some Sungold -- from the garden, lightly sauteed with basil from the garden and garlic. Doesn't even need cheese.

In other news, boyfriend visited, and now my computer is both Jeckyll and Hyde: he kindly partitioned the hard drive with BootCamp and installed Windows so we can play all of the games together long distance. This bodes poorly for my writing. I might have to learn a thing or two from Oliu and put all the forthcoming "research" to good use.

The lovely dog remains, which is nice, because boyfriend left.  She's getting along famously with the cats, which is surprising only because the cats aren't fond of dogs other than Harvey (my roommate's dog).

OH, and Laura and I did a joint Black Warrior Radio show today. Catch one of us next week 12-2 as usual!


S and visitors

Sixth Finch
Smartish Pace
SOFTBLOW
StorySouth
Sugar House

Project status:
Acceptances: 4
Rejections: 14
Jury's still out:  79

...

There is a baby watermelon growing up in my garden, and so many sungolds that I forgot to pick 'em one day and a bunch are over-ripe.  Some of the chard has taken a new lease on life. The basil grows slowly.  Pictures soon...

I have two visitors:  boyfriend, and my sundress-loving friend's sweet dog.  Neither can spend much time outside, so we're all getting along famously in the A/C.

At least the dog doesn't antagonize me.

Back in the game

I took eight 4-sheet signatures of Ingres paper in various shades of blue and earth, and stitched 'em up in a coptic stitch...



with handmade hemp endpaper from the papermaking class I took last spring... (the hemp fiber was a bit overbeaten, so the wrinkles pictured are natural to the paper)




and a splash of handmade kozo (mulberry) paper, also from papermaking class...



with a cover made of soft recycled leather wrapped around boards.


And the best part is, I did it all with a friend.  Bookbinding is better with company.  Her coptic book is more than twice as big, has a gorgeous cloth cover, and will make a great sketchbook.  


A break, but now, Rs

Redivider
Requited
RHINO
Right Hand Pointing
Room

I had a bit of a panic when the first poem from this wave of submissions got picked up, because I realized I had sent it to thirty-one publications... which meant I then had to withdraw it from thirty publications. That took some time, and some thought.  I was also spending far more time on sending poems out than on writing them. The game plan needed adjustment.

So now I'm attempting to write at least one poem and revise at least one poem a day, in addition to submitting. What I revise, I'll send out to journals (if the poem feels finally complete, and if any for the day seem like a potential fit for the work). This should mean less overlap between publications... we'll see...

So far, two acceptances, two of what we'll call... queries, six rejections, and thirty-eight withdrawals since I began 23 days ago.

Rainy day and Qs

Summer thunderstorms feed the garden for a week. The first full-sized tomatoes are ripening, and the sungold cherries are ripening nearly as quickly as I can eat them. A strange fungus has taken up residence with the basil seedlings.




qarrtsiluni
Queen's Quarterly
Qwerty

The Q options are fairly limited, in terms of what looks like a good home for my poems and what's closed to submissions for the summer.  So I also also submitted to:

Bat City
elimae
Gargoyle
Gigantic Sequins
The Journal

which are open now.

BWR Radio

Listen to me live on the radio from noon to 2pm central time!

You can listen from the internet, but if you're local to Tuscaloosa, AL tune in to wvuafm 90.7 The Capstone.

Mostly it is music, like Joan Osborne (oh throaty Joan Osborne) and Robyn and musicals.

Occasionally I tell you what music will play and what just played and why I liked it.

At some point themuppetface and any other DJs we collect and I will incorporate something slightly more related to BWR.

Requests?  Leave a comment, and I'll try to acquire the song in the next two weeks.  Be sure to listen next week when themuppetface has the reins. Cords. Mixer?  You know.

The world is a better place for fresh basil pesto

Fresh basil from the farmer's market, because my basil seedlings are still babies...


plus gobs of delicious extra-virgin olive oil, grated parmesan, lemon, 2 cloves garlic, and no pine nuts because they're gross...  (Recipe here, although I eyeball everything these days.)  

equals basil pesto, which I tossed with basil pasta from Target's surprisingly wonderful Archer Farms label... (also wonderful are their orecchiette)


Did I mention it's been in the 70s all morning?