FiberTribe: Eddie & Esky

Feed My Head 2010

Andrea Camilleri: The Wings of the Sphinx (Inspector Montalbano Mysteries)
The wonderful, irascible Inspector Montalbano of Vigata, Sicily is at it again. Did I mention he's wonderful? And there are 10 earlier ones in the series.
Ariana Franklin: The Serpent's Tale
The very wonderful Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar (prepare to die!) continues her work. Who knew that the wretched pit that is present day Salerno once housed an amazing and Europe-reknowned medical school? Where even women were allowed to become doctors...
Ariana Franklin: Mistress of the Art of Death
Wonderful. And amazing as a first novel. There are some inevitably cringe-worthy scenes (if you're going to be true to the middle ages) but Franklin's ability to bring those times to life is spot-on. And she is amazing with the first of the Plantagenets. Makes me want to jump his unsavory little bones.
Nicholas Blake: The Worm of Death
Vintage 1960 British murder mystery. Good if you'd like to learn quayside shipping vocabulary for the docks at Greenwich...
Kent Haruf: Where You Once Belonged
Well written but depressing. Very depressing. His others are better.
Kent Haruf: Eventide
the sequel, sort of, to the wonderful Plainsong. I know that he's the father someone related to a knitblogger I read regularly. She mentioned him one time and the prior book Plainsong. Who? dunno. I'm not sure I would have appreciated Haruf as much had I not moved to a small, rural town. Go find him. He's quietly wonderful.
Ray Kurzweil Ph.D.: Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever
Another state-of-the-research book from Kurzweil and the longevity physician, Terry Grossman. I liked Fantastic Voyage better, but for sheer quality of information relevant to our health today, it's hard to beat. You can get a free (but for the shipping cost) copy at Ray and Terry's, their website that sells the supplements key to the program. As they say, they don't care if you get the supplements from them or not, just get them, take them and make the lifestyle changes. Then we'll be around to benefit from the next geometric progression of the health research paradigm.
Mehmet Oz M.D.: Healing from the Heart: A Leading Heart Surgeon Explores the Power of Complementary Medicine
so far so good. the ego required to succeed in the star-system world of cardio-thoracic surgery is only minimally present at the half way point in this book. In his world this is no doubt radical, radical stuff. Interesting to see the highest towers of traditional western medicine allow alternative therapies in.
Diane Ackerman: The Zookeeper's Wife
Love Diane Ackerman. Just started this, I'll get back to you...
Dana Stabenow: Whisper to the Blood: A Kate Shugak Novel (Kate Shugak Novels)
Another keeper. All is not well in The Park. The Aunties have taken matters into their own hands. Be afraid. another bit of wonderfulness from Dana Stabenow. Once again I'll be tapping my fingers for another year till the next Kate Shugak mystery shows up. Sigh.
Byron Katie: A Thousand Names for Joy: Living in Harmony with the Way Things Are
Loving What Is continued on...tough Work but is there really a choice about it? heh.
Greg Mortenson: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
Alrighty, I'm late to this game but if you haven't read this, go forth and read it NOW. It's a wonderful tale and it's not over yet. As we ramp up the war in Afghanistan why not join the Dept. of Defense and do your required reading? As Rep. Mary Bono (yes, that one) says, you'll learn more about the region from this book than you will from months of Pentagon briefings. Go Dr. Greg!
Andrea Camilleri: August Heat
Camilleri's latest Inspector Montalbano mystery set in Sicilia. Just wonderful. Now I have to wait a year for the next one. Crap.
Janwillem van de Wetering: The Japanese Corpse (Soho crime)
Two Dutch cops sent to Kyoto to solve a murder in Amsterdam involving the Yakusa. Van de Wetering is a 'voice' like no other. He spent several years in a Zen monastery in Kyoto himself. The entire series has been re-issued by Soho Crime and is totally wonderful. And the cover design by Cheryl Cipriani is awesome. Yes, I'm a cover art ho.
Anthony Bourdain: Kitchen Confidential Updated Ed: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly (P.S.)
Alice Hoffman: Practical Magic
The hardback has an illustration taken from Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Proserpine. Much nicer. Hoffman's a great storyteller. And I always want her characters to go forward to the next book. But they never do. Go read this one anyway. You're welcome.
Tony Hillerman: The Mysterious West
This is a REALLY wonderful short story collection edited by Hillerman. Lord, I'm going to miss that man. All of the stories are set in the west or midwest, small towns and large. They're quirky and somewhat unexpected, especially relative to the usual work of the authors like J.A. Jance, Dana Stabenow (a bit darker), Lia Matera (chilling), etc. The true find for me is Wendy Hornsby. One of the best written stories, independent of genre, I've ever read. I've never read a more skillfully built exposition of the backstory built into the actual story. wow. I'm off to see what else of hers I can find.
Charles de Lint: The Wild Wood
Re-reading this bit of loveliness from de Lint. Among other things, it's about an artist who's lost her mojo. It's apropos given that I've re-started The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron.
Elizabeth A. Lynn: Chronicles of Tornor 3: The Northern Girl (Chronicles of Tornor)
Found this as I was repacking ancient boxes of books. It was written in the late 70s and is flat out wonderful. It's the third book of a trilogy (the 2nd one is Dancers of Arun) I highly recommend all of them. It's Fantasy with an incredibly drawn world worth of an Ursula LeGuin, deep and quirky characters, and stay-up-all-night story telling. go. find them.
Julia Cameron: The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity [10th Anniversary Edition]
A birthday gift from the Gomez. Starting this once again after years of hiatus. Wonderful.

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November 18, 2006

Eddie & Esky

Esky was a found cat, found in the next town over, Escalante, hence her name. She has the most distinctive turn-ups on the tips of her ears, sort of like a bobcat. Anyone out there know what sort of breed this is? And she loves, loves to ride on Eddie's shoulders as he works around the place. Eddie says she's even smart enough not to jump up in the summer months when all he has on is a thin t-shirt. She only jumps up when he's wearing fleece or a sweatshirt, etc.

Since I've been here in Boulder (UT), I've had two close encounters with very, very large ravens. Both benign and probably food related. But then the behavior was eerie in that the raven pictured below literally came well within arms length reach. S/he is just beautiful, glossy and huge and canny. Knew exactly where the bits of peanut and raisin would land, caught one in the air, alas, not caught on camera. And knew before we did that the end of the food was nigh and flew off to play on the thermals.
These were taken on a hike off the Hog's Back just above the normal hiking path to Upper Calf Creek Falls. Again in the late afternoon. And for the Eat Local afficionados, I harvested juniper berries from the trees here to throw into the dutch oven pot roast I made when we got home...
Here's Raven:

and again for the gloss of her wings...

There's nothing next to her for scale to show you that she is about 20 inches long from beak to tail tip. Just glorious. Corbae rock...

Ignore the dorky hat and gawk the scenery...I just never get tired of it. Le sigh.

Posted at 12:24 PM | Permalink

Comments

What a cutie! I'd love it if the P-Man would ride on my shoulder!

Esky looks like an American Curl! You can read about the breed here:
http://www.cfainc.org/breeds/profiles/articles/acurl.html
of course those are show cats so their features are exaggerated but I really think Eksy is a Curl or a close descendant of one :)

Posted by: Debi | November 18, 2006 at 05:31 PM

Looks like an American Curl. Beautiful cat, man's not bad either.

Posted by: Jude | November 19, 2006 at 11:46 AM

I'm living your adventures vicariously you know. Great photos by the way

Posted by: Edge | November 19, 2006 at 01:37 PM

Great trip so far! Keep the pictures coming! How's the car holding up?

Posted by: Patricia | November 21, 2006 at 11:31 AM

Wonderful pictures. You sound very happy.

Posted by: Mary | November 23, 2006 at 05:39 AM

I love reading your blog and seeing the pics. We spent 3 weeks in Utah last July. Wow what a trip. Would do it again in a heartbeat. You drove from Bryce to Boulder in 1 hour? I remember it taking hours. What beautiful country! We stopped at the outfitters in Boulder to check it out then went on to Moah which was amazing. Are you really going home in November?

Posted by: Ahrisha in PA. | November 25, 2006 at 01:31 AM

I cruised through the past month or so and am glad to see you getting the most out of mountain goodness... who knows what will come next, but you sure do get around, making all visits interesting. I got lost in the ether awhile, rebuilding my blog, and then needing a whole new computer system (sigh, I suppose satellite internet access will be next), but now I have you on bloglines and can try to keep up with the pace:) Happy Winter, maybe my most fave season!

Posted by: Birdsong | November 27, 2006 at 12:47 AM