Life and Work, Beak and Claw

[susanstinson]

• At the reading, I felt as if the work were being tenderly received.


• After the conference was over, I rode my trike to Florence to see my friend J., who had made homemade pasta with shrimp and green tomato sauce. He had a salad from his garden (it's so warm so late this year), chicken with prosciutto, and a brownie with whipped cream and ice cream. It was good to sit out at the table on his porch, eat his beautiful food, and talk.


• My birthday is coming up, so last week I had to ride my trike to Hadley to the Registry of Motor Vehicles to get my license renewed. On the way back, I decided to try out the new extension of the bike path to get some groceries, but it turns out that the path ends at a steep hill just before the railroad tracks across King Street from the store. There was a dirt path up the hill, and I tried to ride up it, but it was too steep. The trike stopped, slid backwards, then, when I tried to turn, fell over on top of me. I rode it off the steep edge of the path in Hadley when I first got it, and had to jump off and hoist it by the handlebars to keep from losing it off a ledge, but this is the only time it's fallen over. I had a sore shoulder after that.


• I was riding past the graveyard on my way home from the conference on Saturday when I saw a large crow in the road peck at the body of a squirrel which had been killed by a car. It pulled loose a long, red strand of meat. Flocks of crows live in the graveyard, where people from the time of my novel, such as Jerusha Edwards, David Brainerd, Solomon and Esther Stoddard, and the Hawleys are buried. The whole Edwards family has a marker there, and crows appear throughout the book.

Comments

[oneroom.livejournal.com]

I once heard a local NPR show about crows. The crow expert said that crows are clever enough to have devised tricks to lure squirrels into the road, so the squirrels will get his, so the crows can eat them.

And on the second point, I am so sorry about your trike tipping over. That sounds awful. I have recently started riding my bike in a serious way for the first time, and I have been thinking of you. I'm so impressed with all your triking.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

According to wikipedia, crows drop seeds in the road and wait for cars to run over it to break open the hulls. There is debate over whether their complicated calls constitutes a language (complicated by the fact that they can hear vocalizations at a lower frequencies than humans can), and different individuals perform different tasks within a group. They're amazing. I hadn't heard that they lured squirrels into the road.

The tipping over wasn't that bad, but it's a bummer that the bike path now goes almost all the way to the store, but not quite. How cool that you're biking.

[plaid-is-best.livejournal.com]

Yay on the reading response, Boo on the unfinished, and not well thought out bike track as well as the sore shoulder...ice, ice ice!!!!
Crows are really enjoying the nuts in the road here in Portland. They stay in the middle of the road, ignoring the cars and fly off only at the last moment. They and the western blue jays are enjoying the black walnut tree across the street. I also enjoy seeing them walk across people's gardens, as they survey their land. They are truly majestic.

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

They really are -- so common, and so fascinating. With crows, for sure, the more you look, the more you see.

Hey, I just realized that a good friend is going to Oregon this week -- I'm not sure if she'll be in Portland, but if she is, I'm going to urge her to check out your beautiful store.

[plaid-is-best.livejournal.com]

Yay! Please have her call me, I haven't set my hours up yet...503/ 758-0783

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Don't know if she'll make it, but I passed your number along...

Thank you

[plaid-is-best.livejournal.com]

She did call and is coming to see me first, after she gets here, and she's very excited. thank youso much!!!!

Re: Thank you

[susanstinson.livejournal.com]

Yay!