wordsfromanneli

April 23, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 32 Comments

Mystery Beetle

It’s really bugging me, but does anyone know what this beetle is called?

Is it maybe Buprestis aurulenta? Or?

It was lying dead on my deck. I’m on Vancouver Island, so if you want to check it out the I.D. of the beetle, you’ll have an idea of the area where this bug was found.

The greenish-blue colours of the wings are gorgeous, as is the coppery underbelly. What an amazing outfit it’s wearing.

I welcome any suggestions if anyone knows what it is.

It’s about a little over an inch long.

What do you think it might be?

April 19, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 41 Comments

Where, oh where has springtime gone?

Where can springtime be?

Say I’m not the only one,

Who’s making poetry.

Spring, you say? Where did it go?

Peek around that corner,

Squirrel is looking, doesn’t know,

Logs can roll, I’ll warn her.

Spring, beneath me, do come out,

Hiding snug in there,

Listen to my warrior shout,

How’s that for a scare?

Nope, it’s not beneath the logs.

Maybe there’s no spring,

Anyway, I see no frogs,

Croaking, trying to sing.

With no insects to digest,

Stuck with eau de sweet,

When it warms, the gnats are best,

They’ll be such a treat.

Goodness me! What do I see?

Spring has brought a pest,

Who has asked him in for tea?

Awful ratty guest.

Yummy! Yummy! For my tummy,

Lovely sunflower seeds,

Eat them quick before they’re hummy,

Just what Ratty needs.

Wind and soggy rain we’ve seen,

Why are days not warmer?

Where, oh where has springtime been?

Look around the corner.

Daffy, dilly, daffy dolls,

Harbingers of spring,

Cheering brightly, each one calls,

Happiness we bring.

Not to be outdone in show,

Tulips stand up tall,

Wanting all the world to know,

Who’s the best of all.

Mother! Look! The spring is here,

Sunshine, and those flowers,

Come let’s sing and give a cheer,

In between the showers.

April 16, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 40 Comments

Quentin Quail Is Alive and Well

Remember Quentin, sole survivor of a flock of over forty quails that used to wander through the yard? It has been a few years since the flock has dwindled due to predators, chemical lawns, and habitat encroachment.

Quentin has been lonely, coming each spring to look for what he must have thought was a kindred spirit looking back at him through the window by our front door.

It has been a brutal winter. Really brutal. I thought for sure Quentin did not survive this one.

What a surprise I had when I saw him at our front door, trying in vain to look through the smudged glass for his reflection buddy.

I take no responsibility for the messy window. It’s all Emma’s fault. Whenever the Captain leaves in his truck, Emma runs to the window to watch him leave and her spaniel noseprints are forever on the bottom part of the window.

So, sorry, Quentin, you are out of luck if you had hoped to see anything in the window.

He flies up onto the railing to think about it. He saw his lady love in that very window last year but she didn’t want to come out to play. Now she’s not even there. What to do?

Quentin turns to face me as I take his picture, showing off a perfect white collar that frames his face.

But I have no answers for him in his quest for a mate.

“I might as well go look elsewhere,” he mutters. “Maybe I’ll grab a few seeds from under the birdfeeder first, but what a downer. I was sure she’d be here.”

“You’d think she’d wait for me by the window. I know she lives in there. (Sigh….) Well, maybe after dinner … or tomorrow morning….”

April 11, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 33 Comments

Dinner Guests

Hanging feeders for the birds,

I had not expected herds,

Bandits coming in the night,

Gobbling food with all their might.

Table manners, not so good,

Faces masked, but without hood,

Swinging on the feeder tube,

Like a common country rube.

One sat on the table top,

One beneath ate what might drop.

Cleaning up left over scraps,

Without worries about traps.

To watch the video, you have to be very quick. It’s only about 4 seconds long. You may have to replay it a few times to see the top raccoon stuffing his face, with the feeder at an angle so the seeds fall out better, and the other raccoon sitting underneath him, cleaning up.

I should be thankful that they clean up after themselves.

April 9, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 45 Comments

The Lilac Notebook

You won’t want to miss this one. Carol Balawyder’s latest novel is something unique.

Here is Carol and a little bit about her.

Carol’s academic training is in English Literature and Criminology. She studied criminology so as to bring credibility to the crime novels she wanted to write.

These days Carol is retired from her teaching post of supervising and teaching criminology to college students. She has been busy as a volunteer, visiting Alzheimer’s patients. She brings along her little dog, Bau. One of the patients, Doris, especially loved spending time with Bau. The sweet relationship they developed is reproduced in Carol’s latest novel.

The Lilac Notebook is a study of the decline of a young woman in the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

Doris had lost her ability to speak. Ms. Balawyder used this as a focal point of the murder investigation in which her fictional character, Holly is accused, but unable to defend herself.

Her main character Holly, is partly based on Doris and her relationship with Bau.

My Review of The Lilac Notebook.

Carol Balawyder’s novel, The Lilac Notebook, left me thinking of the plight of one of her characters for many days afterwards. Although it is a crime story, it is different from every other one I’ve read, because Holly, the main character, has early onset Alzheimer’s.

Her husband has never loved her, and now that she has this debilitating disease, she knows that he will find her a burden. She makes the decision to leave before it gets too bad, signs up for a college course and makes friends with two women who will entangle her in a murder mystery.

We learn in detail of her challenges as Alzheimer’s symptoms manifest themselves. In some cases, Alzheimer’s patients lose the ability to speak. They can still hear and reason, but find it difficult to respond. Sometimes the right word is hard to find, and increasingly it becomes more difficult to speak.

After a second murder takes place in their part of the city, Holly and her friends fear for their safety. Holly is haunted by clues she tries to put together, and suspects that the killer may be somehow connected to them. Her speech is becoming difficult, so she records as much as she can remember in her lilac notebook.

When one of her friends suggests that possibly it is Holly herself who is doing the killing, she is in turmoil because her memory has been failing her more and more. She wonders if her friend could be right. Perhaps Holly did kill those people and she just doesn’t remember it.

I was particularly impressed by the way Ms. Balawyder weaves in the details of Holly’s advancing Alzheimer’s in such a compassionate way. We are made to feel Holly’s fears, trepidation, confusion, and frustration as “the plot thickens” and her disease becomes more debilitating.

Real life still happens to people with Alzheimer’s, but we rarely have a chance to look inside the heads of people who suffer from it. With the murder mystery entertaining us, we empathize with Holly’s plight as she tries to solve the murders even while she is implicated in the deeds.

A well-researched nail-biter of a story.

You can purchase The Lilac Notebook at:

amazon.com

amazon.ca

smashwords.com

While you’re there, check out her “Getting to Mr. Right” series.

Please feel free to reblog this post and help Carol to spread the word about her wonderful new novel.

April 3, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 30 Comments

Spring is in the Air

These common mergansers feel that spring is in the air.

“Ooh! La! La!” Miss Mergie croons.

**(Hope these guys are not buffoons.)**

“Are ya lookin’ fer some fun?

Do ya care, my hair’s not done?”

“See you boys have on yer suits,

Least ya don’t look like those coots,

Y’all look fine, all dressed up nice,

Looking fer a little spice?”

“Shoulda known they’d take a hike,

After taking what they like,

Now I’m busy night and day,

Keeping predators at bay.”

“Still, it’s worth it, when I see,

Baby ducklings just like me,

Such a cutie, stay near Mom,

Don’t go doing something dumb.”

March 29, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 45 Comments

My Laziness Pays Off

These chickadees and the nuthatch at the feeders were not there today. This picture was taken on another day. It is perhaps lucky that I’ve been lazy about refilling the feeder these past three sunny days. With the feeders empty today, there were no birds nearby when the visitor swooped in like a harrier jet this afternoon.

Except he was not a harrier; he was a Cooper’s hawk. He sat on the fence, wondering why there were no birds at the feeder.

Maybe they’re hiding in the shrubbery below the feeder.

Disappointed, he flew away to check out the neighbours’ birdfeeders.

March 28, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 25 Comments

Drumming Up Business

This flicker likes my chimney. It’s a perfect drum for establishing territory, possibly for protecting nearby nesting areas. She was here doing the same thing a year ago. How do I know it’s a “she”? The male red-shafted flickers have a red moustache slash. The females do not.

She hears another flicker and answers the call and then drums to assert her right to the territory.

And speaking of drumming up business, please visit my other blog site, annelisplace for everything related to books, reading, and writing. https://annelisplace.wordpress.com/2023/03/28/say-youll-come/

March 26, 2023
by wordsfromanneli 34 Comments

When the Swallows Come Back…

This is the time of year when the swallows come back to Capistrano. The Mission San Juan Capistrano has been a destination for a migration of cliff swallows since the early 1800s.

These swallows winter in Argentina and then migrate north about 6000 miles to California or even farther, but the Mission San Juan Capistrano being the tallest building around that area in those early days, was a destination for the swallows who were looking for a place to make their mud nests.

When I was in Mexico in February of 2007, I saw these swallows sitting on the overhead wires. I’m not sure if they are the cliff swallows that were enroute to California (the timing would have been right) or if they are barn swallows. They look very similar, and of course it was dark when I took these pictures.

The sidewalk below, was a dangerous place to walk, as I found out when I reached my rented bungalow and took off my blue velour jacket which was now covered with whitish splats. I seem to remember having to wash my hair too.

But look at these guys! They’re all facing the same way, except one or two. There is always one who travels to a different drum (second wire down). I see another one on the bottom wire. Just above him is a little guy who was trying to tell him to turn around, and nearly lost his balance himself.