Greetings from the Mesa
We are still hunkered down while the spring break tourist hordes invade, but plans for adventuring are in the works! The garden starts are grow-plant-growing. A pocket gopher keeps slurping up plants in the garden area – we’ve lost a pear tree, a nanking cherry, and a Siberian elm. KP is ready to rent a bobcat and excavate the garden to build a walipini fortress. I finished my taxes over the weekend by hand, and on Monday I reached a milestone that i’ve been looking forward to for a while now. Happy camper all around! Feeling better (and in almost no pain) for the first time in a year and relishing every minute of it!
Curiosities
- 368 Chickens an addictive little game that you can play through your browser that’s making its way around social media.
- Kara Chan’s latest The Shape of Time has me thinking about how we measure the passing of time here, it’s mostly in the arrival and departure of birds. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the hummingbirds – usually around tax day!
- 4 million books were published in 2025 Self publishing leading the way. “In 2025, the top five genres were: fiction (477,104 books); juvenile nonfiction (401,716 books); games and activities (354,684 books); juvenile fiction (265,615 books); and travel (246,615 books).”
- I’ve just stumbled on one of the world’s largest flying beetles, and I’m obsessed… I am pleased to introduce you to the Hercules Beetle.
- Reading A Gentleman in Moscow is like taking a time travel trip through mid-20th century Russia. One factoid that struck me was regarding the Soviet Famine of 1930-1933. “During this period Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered the kulaks (land-owning proprietors) “to be liquidated as a class”.[13][a] As collectivization expanded, the persecution of the kulaks, ongoing since the Russian Civil War, culminated in a massive campaign of state persecution in 1929–1932,[17] including arrests, deportations, and executions of kulaks.[18] Some kulaks responded with acts of sabotage such as killing their livestock and destroying crops designated for consumption by factory workers.[19] Despite the vast death toll in the early stages, Stalin chose to continue the Five Year Plan and collectivization.[20][7] By 1934, the Soviet Union had established a base of heavy industry, at the cost of millions of lives.” (Wikipedia) The kulaks killed tens of millions of cattle rather than having them ‘liquidated’ into the collective. I had no idea…
Consuming
Currently Reading: A Gentleman in Moscow (loving it)
TV/Movies: More Bond… The World is Not Enough (satisfying innuendo), Dark Winds, and getting stoked for the final season of Hacks starting 9 April. Need more comedy in my life!
Music: Dead Can Dance has put their entire discography on Bandcamp! and Austin Kleon’s March Mixtape.