A starling all puffed up against the cold. It’s still snowy and icy.
A1 is reading Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway. A Le Carré novel by Le Carré junior, which competently plugged a gap in Smiley’s story in a suitably complicated fashion.
Category: wildlife
Critter of the Day: Turdus merula
Not a very pretty name for this handsome blackbird.
We had pasta, parkin and delicious Ethiopian coffee for our family lunch and scored 11.5 for the last quiz of the year, bringing our average to 10.2268518518519, a step down from last year’s 10.2756346153846.
A1 is reading Nobody’s Hero by MW Craven, another violent and thrilling outing for Ben Koenig; thanks, A2! — who is reading Orbital by Samantha Harvey (thx A1); 24 hours on the International Space Station watching the drama of the cosmorama, incorporating 16 days of the sun burnishing the oceans and 16 nights of lights fringing the coastlines while the astro/cosmonauts on board divulge a bit of backstory and have high-flown thoughts about the geography and meteorology of their home planet and a typhoon winds up over the Philippines. A short but engaging read.
Bird in a Bush
A blackbird eyeing us through the window on a misty morning.
A2 is rereading The Chalk Circle Man* by Fred Vargas.
Get well soon Gez.
Bottoms Up
Storm Darragh is raging outside but our rain gauge is blocked and serving as a useful drinking source for the birds.
The family braved the storm for our family dinner of stroggers and sticky toffee pudding and we scored 11.5 on the GSQ. Yay us!
A2 is rereading The Readymade Thief* by Augustus Rose.
Pigeon
When there is nothing else to look at the pigeons are always there, watching everything.
A1 is reading Death on the Thames* by Alan Johnson, which was relentlessly average. A2 is reading Elaine* by Will Self; Will’s memoir of his mum as a furious, frustrated, flirtatious fifties housewife (oh God, let’s never go back to those days!).
Critter of the Day: Sturnus vulgaris
A starling amid the red leaves and mostly melted snow.
A1 is rereading the enormous and erudite Anathem by Neal Stephenson. It occurred to A1 on this reread that there is a possibility that Fraa Jad maps to Enoch Root, in some sense. But it appears I’m not the first to notice this (see ‘Speculation’ at bottom of page).
A2 is rereading A Climate of Fear by Fred Vargas.
Snow Fox Trot
Earliest snow on our records and a fox comes exploring in a winter wonderland with the colours of Hokusai’s Wave.
A2 is reading The Labyrinth House Murders* by Yukito Ayatsuji. Just like in Ink Ribbon Red* (qv) a birthday party host orders his guests to write a murder story involving themselves (it’s a 60th birthday, the guests are professional crime writers and there is a big prize at stake — but still). Where do they get their crazy ideas?
Red/Squirrel
A critter surrounded by autumn colour.
We had chicken ham broccoli and apple crumble, plus omelettes for the veggies, for our family dinner and scored an unexpected 10 for our guesses in the GSQ.
A2 is reading Ink Ribbon Red* by Alex Pavesi which was unmitigated rubbish. Like anybody’s idea of 30th birthday party fun would be to order their guests to write stories about killing each other, and like any of them would bother.
Critter of the Day: Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale
A handsome Hawthorn Shield Bug strolling on the kerb. The photo isn’t over-processed; the beetle (and the concrete) is really that spotty.
A2 is rereading Fun with Your New Head by Thomas M Disch.
A Foggy Day
The fog hung around all day; no chance of the comet, but here is the marvel of a cobweb coated with jewels.
A1 is rereading Strange Tides by Christopher Fowler. A2 is rereading The Man who had No Idea by Thomas M Disch, who has more ideas than you can shake a stick at.
Squabbling Squabs
Pigeons being fed in Dortmund Square.
Friendly Robin
Yesterday and this afternoon A1 and A2 tried to clear some of the rampant brambles, raspberry canes and weeds clogging up our back garden. With an audience: this little chap kept his beady eye on the progress on both days, doubtless hoping for some grub to be unearthed. A1 also tidied the pond a bit, so now we can actually see it. And we still have fish! At least six were spotted.
A1 is rereading Restless by William Boyd. A2 is reading Enlightenment by Sarah Perry (thx A1) in which we all learn a bit about astronomy.
Critter of the Day: Vanessa atalanta
First red admiral of the year, seen at a distance, with bonus bee. They travel here from mainland Europe but not in small boats — admirals come in big ships.
A1 is reading Kill the King* and A2 is reading Kill the Angel*, both by Sandrone Dazieri.
Critter of the Day: Another Cabbage White
Cabbage Whites and Speckled Woodsare the only types of butterfly we have seen this year. Come back Tortoiseshells, Peacocks, Red Admirals, Ringlets and Gatekeepers.
A1 is reading Kill the Angel* by Sandrone Dazieri. A2 is reading The Conspirators by GW Shaw (thx A1).
Critterof the day: Emmelina monodactyla
A common plume moth with its body forming a T and its legs forming an X.
A1 is reading Kill the Father* by Sandrone Dazieri. A2 is rereading The Fear Index by Robert Harris; AI-nxiety.
Tangled Up in Blue
A common candy-striped spider watches her children hatching in the lid of the garden waste wheelie bin.
The family turned up unexpectedly so we had emergency pasta and fruit salad for tea and scored 10 on the GSQ.
A1 is reading Dead of Winter* by Anders de la Motte. A2 is reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.
Shelter from the Storm
A lovely Cabbage White seeing out Storm Lilian (which destroyed our insect hotel, leaving loads of insects homeless) on our living room window. Had to process the photo a lot to get rid of the storm-blown dust.
Incoming Hoverfly
It’s World Photography Day so here is a photo of a hoverfly about to land on a passion flower.
A2 is reading Blacklands by Belinda Bauer; a 12-year-old boy contacts a child killer with consequences that combine humour with nail-biting tension.
Critter of the Day: Zebra Spider
Meet Salticus scenicus, a tiny but beautiful stripy spider with eyes like headlamps and pedipalps like feather dusters.
A1 is reading Deeds of Autumn* by Anders de la Motte. A2 is rereading The Misper by Kate London.
Last night A2 went out and watched a couple of Perseids streaking across the starry sky. Tonight it’s raining.
C for Cinnabar Caterpillar
A2 was cutting down the poisonous ragweed today when she noticed it was hosting these jolly little fellows in their stripy pyjamas, so it stays until they have eaten it all.
A1 is reading Past Lying by Val McDermid. A2 is reading The Young Accomplice* by Benjamin Wood; a brother and sister fresh out of borstal are apprenticed to a pair of idealistic architect/farmers but cannot shake off the bloke who got them into trouble in the first place.
Critter of the Day: Pararge aegeria
A Speckled Wood sitting on a cement bag next to a hosepipe. We have 3 cement bags piled on the patio, all set solid and too heavy to move.
July was our third coldest, fourth wettest and fourth cloudiest since our records began.
A1 is rereading The Misper by Kate London. A2 is reading Past Lying by Val McDermid. Detectives in covid lockdown attempt to solve a cold case with the help of an unfinished posthumous crime novel.
White Flight
We have seen so few butterflies this year that it is a pleasure to welcome this boring Cabbage White flying above our broccoli bed.
A1 is rereading Death Message by Kate London. A2 is reading The Missing Family by Tim Weaver.
Critter of the Day: Leiobunum rotundum
A2 was preparing to redecorate our insect hotel when this handsome two-tone harvestperson swung itself out on its lovely long legs. Sorry to disturb you, honoured guest of our humble establishment.
A1 is rereading Post Mortem and A2 is rereading The Tower, both by Kate London and both the same book under different titles which A2 bought by mistake and not for the first time (or even for the first time this week). Complaints about annoying neighbours can have catastrophic ramifications.
Hovering
A hoverfly approaches a radish flower.
A1 is reading The Cracked Mirror by Chris Brookmyre, a tricksy crime/SF hybrid. CB has problems dealing with SF themes (cf his Places in the Darkness), and here he’s attempting a Dickian reality-bending story. It’s entertaining enough, and full marks for effort, but it’s overcomplicated and doesn’t really follow through enough on its — admittedly interesting — premise (spoilers here!).
A2 is reading The Last Word* by Elly Griffiths.
Critter of the Day: Meadow Brown
A monochrome butterfly on a monochrome fence taken from a long way away, but hey we’ve seen so few butterflies so far this year.
A1 is reading Hunted by Abir Mukhergee, an attempt at a contemporary US-based thriller from AM, who usually does historical crime set in India. Readable but implausible, and yet another entry in the sinister-cult subgenre. Thanks, A2!