I think this is a broad-winged hawk. If anyone knows for sure, I’d be interested in your opinion.
*Disclaimer: I think hummingbirds are exempt from harm when they drink the nectar. I hope so anyway.
I’m giving myself another challenge for the month of May:
A picture of a bird or a flower with a short poem to go with it.
Don’t expect fancy poetry. It’s just for fun.
Located on the northwestern coast of France, near the mouth of the Couesnon River where it empties into the English Channel, Mont St Michel is a tidal island on which an ancient abbey was built about the year 709 A.D. The last part of the Couesnon River, near the mouth, marks the border between the provinces of Normandy and Brittany. Normandy came out the winner in having the island on its side of the river.
It has been a place of refuge for villagers escaping Viking raids, and a place of worship named after the archangel St. Michael. It is now a tourist attraction, visited by about 2.5 million people each year.
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The narrow streets of the buildings on this granite island are packed with tourists, especially in the summer, but there are about 30 residents living on the island permanently. While there are many tourist shops on the island, there are not shops that supply the locals with food and supplies. For that, they must travel about 10 kms (so you don’t want to suddenly run out of half and half for your coffee).
In the old days when it was still used as a monastery type of setting, the monks didn’t leave the abbey. The abbey was built on the top of the cone-shaped granite island, in a combination of Romanesque and Gothic styles. Because of its relatively difficult accessibility, the materials for building the abbey were brought in on barges when the tide was right. The statue of St. Michael on the top has worked as a lightning rod and has spared the island much damage.
In the photo below, you can see a notched track where supplies were pulled up or lowered down with the help of a winch at the top. This was for the benefit of those monks who never left the monastery. About a dozen monks and nuns still live in part of the abbey now.
After the French Revolution, and until 1863, some tiny rooms were used as a prison. These dark stone rooms must have been terrible places to be kept, like in a dungeon, but above ground.
The history of the abbey of Mont St Michel is long and diverse; too much write about here.
It is a fascinating World Heritage Site, worth visiting if you are ever in the north of France.
Flowers don’t often write poetry, but these flowers are two petals short of a load, so anything goes.
Jacqui Murray is an amazing woman. She is constantly researching the history and facts about how man lived on this earth from hundreds of thousands of years ago to several thousands of years ago. She has read dozens and dozens of books and articles about the evolution of the earth and how man survived in the harsh environment of nature as it was back then.
She has drawn on this research to write many novels, but if you think research has made her books dry or boring, think again. They are page turners!
Jacqui Murray has done all the work. The only thing we need to do is read and enjoy the wonderful novels she writes about the people of those times. She gives the characters personalities that we can identify with. Some are wise, some foolish, some good and caring, others vain or selfish, hardworking or lazy, skilled or unskilled. Not much different from people today. Humans had emotions and basic needs throughout history. The emotions haven’t changed. But how they reacted to those emotions and needs was sometimes very different from what we would do today.
Most of us love nature. But imagine having nothing but nature around you, and having to survive without most of the conveniences of food, shelter, and security that we take for granted nowadays. How hard would life be if the world was still in upheaval from extreme weather conditions, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions, as landmasses were still forming and changing?
You can’t go to the store to buy a coat if you’re cold; there are no stores. You have little protection against wild animals, and no modern medicine for illnesses. You need to learn which animals are dangerous to your health and which plants will kill you if you eat them. There is no book to consult about these mysteries. You are basically on your own. Most of us would not survive.
The survival instinct is one of the main reasons that early man learned to work together with others of their kind, and formed groups or tribes. They knew that there is strength in numbers.
In Jacqui Murray’s books, you will love getting to know the people and you will feel their joy and their pain. Best of all, you will find yourself in a world you’ve probably never imagined. It’s as if you went back in time … WAY back in time.
Don’t miss Jacqui’s latest exciting page turner, “Badlands,” the second book of the trilogy, “Savage Land.” If you haven’t read Book One in the series, please check out “Endangered Species.” You can find both books if you click on the link below the cover image of “Badlands.”
*****
Author bio:
Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular prehistoric fiction saga, Man vs. Nature which explores seminal events in man’s evolution one trilogy at a time. She is also author of the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers and Building a Midshipman , the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. Her non-fiction includes 100+ books on tech into education, reviews as an Amazon Vine Voice and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics.
Social Media contacts:
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Jacqui-Murray/e/B002E78CQQ/
Blog: https://worddreams.wordpress.com
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/askatechteacher
X: http://twitter.com/worddreams
Website: https://jacquimurray.net
Book information:
Print, digital, audio available: http://a-fwd.com/asin=B0DFCV5YFT
Genre: Prehistoric fiction
Editor: Anneli Purchase
*****
Here is a sample – just a small part of Chapter One.
Chapter 1
75,000 years ago
Modern day Altai Mountains, Siberia
Yu’ung’s legs churned, arms pumped, throat straining to draw in air. Her red hair hung in damp sweaty ropes on her neck and shoulders. After narrowly escaping the cave-in and then Hyaena’s attack, time had run out. B’o was supposed to leave with or without her when Sun reached a particular spot overhead. That point had passed and now, the maelstrom was upon them. She must get to her tribe.
Running never tired her, no matter how long or far. Today was different. Driven by desperation and worry for those who relied on her, she ran too hard and slammed up against her limit.
She stumbled to a stop and bent forward, chest heaving, sucking in one mouthful of air after another. The blue-eyed Canis–the massive Ump with his dark coat, the smaller White Streak with the light colored stripe cutting her black fur from one side of her forehead to the other, and the older Ragged Ear–circled back to her, huffing and prancing. Somehow, they knew time was short. Shanadar, who seemed to be their pack leader, wasn’t even winded. He waited, patient but anxious.
She muttered, “The smoke–it’s much worse.”
Yu’ung had departed her homebase before Sun woke. She had gone there to tell the Tall One Fierce that the People would join him. The air tasted of ash then, but lightly. By the time she reached where Fierce and his Tall One band should have been, the small flakes had grown chokingly large. The Tall Ones–wisely–were gone, but her mother, Kriina, now Fierce’s pairmate, left a message in the tunnel telling Yu’ung their destination and of a possible new homebase for the People.
It was there Yu’ung would lead the People.
“I’m ready, Shanadar,” and she took off again.
She expected the Angry Mountain’s destruction to clear closer to her homebase, but instead, cinders and smoke thickened and the air dimmed to a dingy gray. Uprooted trees blocked the usual passages forcing her to divert onto new, untried trails. Pockets of flames burned without pause on all sides. The grassland and forests that fed the People were almost wiped out.
*****
wordsfromanneli 