You Think You've Got Problems

The Monterey Herald reported today that sea lion pups are overtaking the parking lot in the Breakwater Cove area, near the Coast Guard station. The city has hired a part-time temporary worker to "sweep" them back to sea, but when he leaves at 5 p.m., they take over the place, going so far as to camp out on the toilet of the men's restroom.

Read the story here. (Photo by Orville Meyers/The Herald)

Sweet Delilah

Jena and Jeremy have a new beach house, and Maya and Erich have a new dog! Meet Delilah, an 8-week-old female yellow Lab. She joins Country, at home. (Miley lives in San Diego with J&J; of course we love her too!)

Larry's Kidney

Just started LARRY'S KIDNEY, by Daniel Asa Rose, "...the true story of how I found myself in China with my black sheep cousin and his mail-order bride, skirting the law to get him a transplant -- and save his life."

I was in bed, reading, and when I got to page 19, I busted out laughing. It seems Daniel is in Tiananmen Square, and he asks his tour guide, Yuh-vonne, if she's aware of what happened there in the late 1980s. This is what transpires:

Yuh-vonne winks lasciviously. "Inside those walls, emperor spend so much time playing with his concubine," she says.

"No, not inside the Forbidden City," I say. "Across the street in the square. In 1989."

Yuh-vonne quickly averts her gaze. "Our elders will not tell us," she says. "Many time we ask them, but they say don't ask."

"Do you know that students were hurt here?"

"A few," she says carefully. "That about it."

I bring her gaze back to me with a hand on her shoulder. "Not a few," I say. "Hundreds. The tanks rolled right over them when they were protesting."

"Ow my God!" she says, sucking in her breath. "I have to go tawlet!"

"Seriously?"

"No, I can wait," she says, but she looks constipated suddenly, buttoned up.

Can't wait to read more!

Wood Duck Sits on 23 Eggs. (That's a lotta eggs!)

Steve met Mike and Toni Deery at their ranch this morning, where they have a pond with a wood duck box. Steve's gone over twice to check the status, and this morning there were 23 eggs -- double the normal amount. He's guessing another female wood duck "dumped" her eggs in this female's nest after a raccoon got her own first batch. The eggs will hatch in about five days.

Steve, Toni, and Mike also banded the duck (number 1096-90254), removing her briefly from the box to place the band and check the eggs before setting her back in. She settled in cozily.

"Old Will Road" Hits Narrative Magazine

I think there are maybe three people I haven't yet told about my short story, "Old Will Road," featured as a Story of the Week in Narrative magazine. It hit the site on Mother's Day, and will remain accessible all of this week from their home page. (After that, click on the archives link and search for my name, down there at the bottom of the "T"s.)

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful emails and comments. I love that you love the story, and yes, I promise to give serious thought to giving these characters a permanent home via a novel.

Young Barred Owl

Steve took this photo of a young barred owl at the Francis Beilder Forest, an Audubon and Nature Conservancy bottomland hardwood sanctuary, near Charleston, South Carolina. The little guy's parents are likely nearby, and are probably still feeding him. He's not exactly a fatty, and looks like he could use an extra mouse or two!

New Logo for CLO

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a new logo -- a yellow-bellied sapsucker. Love it!

Pete Fromm

I met Pete at Tomales Bay in late 2007, where he was leading a fiction workshop. We sat together at breakfast one morning, talking about the things we have in common -- or, rather, the things he and my husband have in common (swimming and wildlife biology). I liked Pete, and when I got home, picked up a copy of his memoir, INDIAN CREEK CHRONICLES, which I have since shared with my hairy wildlife friends.

Pete's got a Story of the Week in Narrative this week, "Peas," which you can access here. (If you're reading this after May 10, search the archives, instead.) I know you'll enjoy it as much as I did, so check it out and leave a comment on Narrative's board; it's definitely worth your while.

Olive Kitteridge

Just finished OLIVE KITTERIDGE, this year’s Pulitzer Prize-winner by Elizabeth Strout. The book is a set of 13 linked stories set in small-town Maine, and features as its protagonist a retired school teacher named Olive Kitteridge.

There is much debate among readers concerning Olive’s bristly personality – whether she’s gruff, maddening, loveable, sympathetic, or “blunt, flawed and fascinating.” One reviewer stated “Strout makes a reader feel protective, even tender, toward Olive…” but I could not disagree more. I found her to be heart breakingly mean-spirited, as she is in this scene with her husband, Henry:

It was Henry who bought the groceries now. One day he brought back with him a bunch of flowers. “For my wife,” he said, handing them to her. They were the saddest damn things. Daisies dyed blue among the white and ludicrously pink ones, some of them half-dead.

“Put them in that pot,” Olive said, pointing to an old blue vase. The flowers sat there on the wooden table in the kitchen. Henry came and put his arms around her; it was early autumn and chilly, and his woolen shirt smelled faintly of wood chips and mustiness. She stood, waiting for the hug to end. Then she went outside and planted her tulip bulbs.

I could cry, reading that.

In an interview with Robert Birnbaum, Elizabeth Strout says she doesn’t have a stake in readers’ reactions to Olive, but that she does have a stake in their reactions to the book. “I hope that even if they have a negative response to much of Olive’s behavior, they are maybe still drawn into this humanity that is underneath all of her actions.”

But it is difficult to find humanity in a woman who is cruel to her family, friends, and those in her community. Her favorite word seems to be “stupid,” as in “you are stupid, they are stupid, he/she/it is stupid.” So I do not commiserate when sad things happen to her, or when she at last realizes the value of what she has so consistently and cruelly dismissed. (In other words, lady, what goes around, comes around.)

Having said that, I don’t need a soft and fuzzy protagonist to appreciate a finely crafted novel. The writing is delicious, and all of the characters supremely drawn. Which, despite cranky old Olive, is to Elizabeth Strout’s credit.

Eucalyptus Visitors

Two birds new to our backyard yesterday: the western tananger (above) and the black-headed grosbeak (below). Both of these birds arrived ahead of a moderate cold front and significant rainfall (just over an inch). Steve took the pics from his upstairs office window.

We also think the hooded oriole is back -- heard him, but haven't yet seen him, as he/she is quite the hider-outer.