Neither books nor gardens

 A brief segue into the world of cooking.

 How lazy can one be to just haphazardly chop up a bunch of vegetables, toss with a little olive oil and salt, and roast them in the oven?  Lazy but happy.

 

Review: The Mysterious Lands

An Award-Winning Naturalist Explores the Four Great Deserts of the Southwest

by Ann Haymond Zwinger

Naturalist writing at the best--slow and deep, patient and prickly. She wanders about in what seems like an aimless, endless digression on the plants and things she encounters, but always managing to tell something worth knowing about the objects encountered. Not everything--where's the mystery in that?--but always something. And something interesting.

I think the book would be best enjoyed if you were yourself exploring the deserts she walks.  And in small chunks. The chapters are short, so one of them or a half of one would be ideal. I tried to read it offline, in the silence of my home far away, and I often found myself losing track of what I was reading; getting distracted, setting it down and not wanting to pick it back up.

But this is a fault of my concentration, not the writing--which is pure poetry--or the adventures she explores. Most are very, very small, almost at a microscopic level. but still so very intriguing.

 

Review: Comanche Marker Trees of Texas

by Steve Houser

Cool little book of the research and investigation that goes into evaluating trees as potential historic 'marker' trees in the former Comanche territory of Texas.  They need to be of the correct age and species and with an estimated growth rate that put them in the correct date range. I'm not sure exactly when that is, the book never seemed to tell, but I guess it's around 1825-1875.  And an examination of the scarring and/or wounds on the tree can indicate if it was likely to have been tied down during a formative period.

Very interesting stuff, I must say.

Review: Finding Dorothy

Elizabeth Letts is a great writer, and I really enjoyed this book, even more than her other book The 50-Dollar Champion.  But I can't help feeling a little weirded out knowing that great huge sections of what I read--and now believe in--are not real.  It's the whole fictionalized history dilemma--is it right for an author to take real people and events from history and make up the missing details in order to tell a great story?

(fyi, it's about the widow of the author of The Wizard of Oz and it flashes back and forth between their life history and the current time, when she is trying to give unsolicited direction to the crew making the movie.)

How many people of my son's generation are going to think "Zombie Hunter" every time they hear the name "Abraham Lincoln"?  Probably a lot, but I hope they get over it. But in this case, the author writes such a believable story, such a might-have-happened alternate reality, that it will stick in my head for a long time, until finally, I'll have forgotten that some of what I know isn't really true at all.

And that is scary to me. But it's still a very good book, and I won't deny her the right to write it.  at least, at the end, she explains what is fact and what is imagination. Thanks!

Gardening: First garden flower of spring

 

Hyacincth

 

Review: Lost on the Appalachian Trail

Lost on the Appalachian Trail (Triple Crown Trilogy)

by Kyle Rohrig

Something wonderful happened in this book--I don't even know what, or how, but it thrilled me. I only know that a guy walked a trail, pushing himself beyond endurance (unnecessarily sometimes, but who am I to say?), and ended up a changed being.  I'd read his Florida Trail book already, so I expected to enjoy his writing and his attitude toward life, but I didn't know just how much I was going to enjoy this one.  Which is a lot.

He does some stuff I wouldn't do, but this being his first trip I'll forgive him the youthful exuberance. Jumping off rocks into lakes of unknown depths?  In the wilderness? No way! Picking up snakes. Well, maybe, but not my thing. Sleeping in a hammock? Ick!

First flower of spring?

 

Can't identify it for sure, but the plant app thinks it's probably called Crow Poison aka False Garlic. I'll need to see a flower more closely to verify the description below.

This early spring flower is one of the first to appear on lawns, meadows, or roadsides throughout the state. Often it blooms sporadically in summer and again in the fall. It grows from a bulb and looks much like the wild onion, but has fewer and larger flowers on long stems and lacks the onion odor. The leaves are all at the base of the plant, about 1/8 inch wide, but often quite long, 4-15 inches. The white flowers have 6 tepals with a green to brown stripe, and 6 stamens. Individual flowers are 1/2 inch across and grow in loose clusters on stalks 8-16 inches tall.