whale music

Imagine the thrill of those Londoners who were able to get down to the Thames and see the whale! There it is, there is something indefinable we humans get when we catch a glimpse, or even better, get close to a wild animal, particularly something we might not see very often, such as this whale .

A couple of days ago, I walked along a different route around our meadows, going southward along the cornfield, then east, past the huge piles of logs from the foresters. I found a wild turkey highway of sorts. The dogs went wild, running along very excited along the highway of footprints. They scattered into the woods to the northeast of the little pond behind an old earthenworks dam. A couple of days later, following the same walk, I came upon Misty at one point, with her head up in the little hollow of a tree, with barely her tail showing. Maybe she knew what had taken shelter in the tree, but I could only guess.

Later, we came upon tracks that looked like those of a large dog--larger than any of our dogs. The tracks made an even paced, direct path along the old road through the woods northward. Coyote? Wolf?

All sorts of tracks stop me and grab my interest: here, there, on the way to the compost pile, tracks of the squirrels, birds, mice?

I really think I shall have to buy myself a book to help me identify what I see.

Speaking of books, I read one book I enjoyed a great deal, one middling, and one that was not so great:

First, a collection of short stories by Ian Rankin. Great writing, but I confess that I find the subjects too dark. Oh, I do like mysteries but find books and movies that portray worlds such as the stuff of the movie "Trainspotting", depressing. Of the characters, I think Rebus is easily my favorite. Maybe I'd like Rankin's Rebus novels more. I'll dip into this stuff once in a while, but it won't be my steady diet of reading/viewing.

The second book was a mystery that I enjoyed and now have a difficult time remembering the title and author. Let's see. An English mystery writer... I suspected the mother almost right away....Ah! I've got it: The Veiled One, and Inspector Wexford mystery by Ruth Rendell.

The third that I liked the best, was Gail Godwin's Evensong. In my mind, her wonderful portraits of the worst and the best ( some of the many in between) kinds of church people were fascinating. My favorite part was the heroine finding glimpses of God in the people she encountered in her work and private life. I have to try to find the quote/passage.
Here is another excerpt about "sandbox whiners" that nicely helps one distinguish a little between dictation vs inspiration, or how the Bible can still be a source of inspiration today, even though the writers were all too human.