Hits and Misses

The last month has been one of hits and misses for me in terms of the books I picked up. Reminded me of a quote I read somewhere "There comes a time when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book".

As the Booker longlist was announced I couldn't wait to read some of the books that made the list. By the time I sat down to write this post, the shortlist was announced and none of the books I had read (completely) made the list.

Started with Anne Enright's "The Green Road", a woman Irish writer, I can't believe I had not read her before! The Madigan family's trials and tribulations are traced over the course of many decades and we see Ireland's boom and bust cycles as we go through the decades. The novel is told in different voices (from the point of view of each child) over different time frames. So each chapter seems to be a short story with a loose connection to the previous ones. As the children grow up and some leave Ireland we travel along with them to the US and even Africa. The final action takes place once again in Ireland as the four Madigan children (Dan, Constance, Emmet and Hannah) are forced to come together as their mother decides to sell their childhood home. I should say I liked the sections set in Ireland the best and found the US and Africa sections a bit tedious - decided to turn the page instead of closing the book, but it left me wanting.

Then I picked up "The Moor's Account" by Laila Lalami. The book tells the story of the little known (at least to me) attempt by the Conquistador Panfilo de Navraez to capture Florida coast and claim it for the Spanish crown back in 1527. The journey starts out with 600 people and ends with 3 survivors, one of whom is the Moroccan slave Estebanico who is the narrator of this novel. The Moor is trying to provide a more honest version of what really happened as opposed to the sanitized version of the expedition supplied by the other two "gentlemen". Facing death, disease, and starvation the survivors managed to get from Florida to Mexico where they are eventually rescued thanks to the many Indian tribes they meet along the way - some hostile, but most willing to provide some food and shelter in exchange for labor or gifts. I enjoyed Estebanico's (formerly Mustafa) backstory, how he sold himself to slavery due to poverty, and then spent the rest of his time trying to get himself out of that state. It is also a story about stories and words - how powerful they are. Overall this was one where I kept turning the page, and I am sad it didn't make the short list.

"Satin Island" which has made the short list was one that definitely was not my cup of tea. I closed the book half way through, as it was more form over function, style over substance kind of book similar to "A visit from the goon squad" the 2011 pulitzer winner. If this one wins the Booker and someone explains to me why maybe i will revisit it, but that seems unlikely.

The non-fiction of the month was "Brilliant Green: The surprising history and science of plant intelligence". It is a short and easy read even for someone who might not be scientifically minded. Stefano Mancuso is a valiant defender of plants and wants to bring to light the step-daughterly treatment they have been receiving from humans who don't seem to understand that without plants their future would be pretty bleak! The book gives us a cliff notes type overview of the scientific discoveries in the last few decades pertaining to plant intelligence, sensing, social behavior. Very thought provoking, and yes while I still devour plants, I am more respectful of them these days. One of the side effects, is that my 10 year old has taken to practicing her recorder near our raised bed in the hope of encouraging the plants in our bed, similar to "Mozart for babies" (which I never did!)


The last two books for this post gave me an insight into pre-teen/teen boys almost like the movie "Boyhood" did! Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and David Mitchell's Black Swan Green are both Bildungsroman novels that trace one year in the life of Paddy Clarke (in Dublin)and Jason Taylor (in the fictional village of Black Swan) respectively. Roddy Doyle won the Booker back in the '80s for his book. It was not an easy read unlike Black Swan Green, but both were very educational for me.

Continuing this theme of Bildungsroman and teenage boys, I am the middle of reading "The Fishermen" by Chigozie Obioma. If I were the betting kind my money for the Booker would be on this one! I am only about 2/3rd of my way through, and this is a hard to put down book.

October looks exciting thanks to Slade House, Heart Goes Last and Sorcerer to the Crown - three books I've been looking forward to for quite some time. Also after much hesitation decided to pick up Game of Thrones (the books, not the show) - late to the party, but want to see what it is all about. My curiosity was piqued because of the comparison to Tolkien.

For now daughter is into The Hobbit which I am reading to her for bedtime, and we want to move onto Lord of the Rings even if that's going to take a couple of years to get through. How long she will want me to keep reading to her at night, I don't know but I intend to savor it as long as I can and if Tolkien can't help me, no one else can!

4 out of 6 for women

July was a great month for women writers at our home! While J.K. Rowling held my daughter captive, I had a lot of peace and quiet to catch up on my own reading.

Calligraphy of characters from the series

Go Set a Watchman - everything that needs to be said about the book has been said already by countless critics and readers. As everyone debates about Atticus, my main takeaway was about Harper Lee's craft! Every time you hear great writers talk about countless previous drafts and how different the current novel was from the one they originally started with, you have no clue how truly different it turned out. To me this was the revelation from Go Set a watchman - how Harper Lee was able to finish a story, then go back and completely re-do it from scratch as though she had a clean slate. I was blown away by that. I sometimes struggle to re-order power point slides or even worse rearrange bullets within a slide, so this to me was a remarkable achievement, something that i think all budding writers should take note of. Now that both the books exist it is hard to discount one and focus only on the other, and harder still to not think of them as sequels.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger was another book I finally got to this year. Was it science fiction or romance? I didn't care as I enjoyed the plot of a modern day Penelope waiting for her Odysseus who is chrono-impaired and has no control over when or where he time travels to.

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler was a disappointment to me. I came to this after "We are all completely besides ourselves" and the Jane Austen book just didn't do it for me. The premise of the book of course was interesting - 6 people, 6 novels and each person a representative of one of the legendary Austen characters, unclear who was narrating the story. Frankly most of their lives seemed boring and predictable like every person's life. While Austen is legendary for taking the mundane and making it exciting, Karen Joy Fowler was not able to pull it off (i.e IMO)

The next book was "At the water's edge" by Sara Gruen. I had enjoyed her first book "Water for elephants" and so when I walked into the library and found the book in the 2 week lease section, and read the blurb I couldn't resist it. One of my main regrets when I visited Scotland was not to have been to Inverness and the Highlands (something i hope to rectify in the future).So I am a sucker for a story which is set there and has the Lochness monster as a character. Once again this book was a good summer read, but not close to the previous book.

End of July the Booker longlist was announced. As I read through the blurbs I was fascinated by a few of them. I picked up "Illuminations" by Andrew O'Hagan. The Booker blurb described it as a book about "war, homecoming and families". I should say the war bit was tedious maybe because there have been other books that have done a much better job. So I almost skipped the parts about the war (Luke) and waited to read the bits about the families (Anne), dealing with old age, dementia, memories and confronting long buried family secrets - this part was very well written. Don't know if it will make the shortlist though.

The highlight of the month was a nonfiction book. "Sapiens: a brief history of humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari was one fascinating read! I have been recommending this book to everyone I meet.Of all the human species that once roamed the earth, what made the Sapiens unique and so successful? Our ability to cooperate in large numbers enabled by religion, money, empires, gossips, cognitive dissonance - in short our ability to believe and imagine a future not just as an individual but as a group. These charactersitics are not always for the better as they also led to imagined hierarchies (slavery, racism), rapid extinction of other species and the not so positive impact we've had on the planet. Human history has been often spin doctored to portray our species in a positive light but in Sapiens we see that History is just a collection of accidents. The book lays out our history in 3 sections - Cognitive revolution, Agricultural Revolution and the ongoing Scientific revolution. It is very hard to summarize our entire history in 400 pages, but the book pulls it off. It is certainly the best non-fiction book I've read this year.

Have more books from the Booker long list to get through in August. I am especially curious about "The Chimes" but finding it hard to get my hands on it. I am sure if it makes the shortlist it would be more widely available. Also want to read "Brilliant Green"  - a nonfiction book about plants, but if it proves that plants are indeed sentient beings I don't know what i will eat anymore :)

The wait is over....almost

5 more days to go before "Go Set a watchman" will be at my door. I don't recall awaiting a book release with this much eagerness. I know many people have been waiting for half a century for this and I have only waited for about three decades.

Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" was introduced to me like so many other things by my dad. I was in 8th grade and was spending most of my time engrossed in murder and legal mysteries of the Perry Mason kind that my dad thought it was time to rescue me and improve my taste. So he handed me his copy of the Mocking Bird without giving me any clues as to what the story was about. Little did I know that something that begins so innocuously with a 13 year old boy breaking his arm, will have the power to break my heart.  I remember finishing it over one weekend and being moved beyond words. How can a story that is so distinctly American touch the heart of someone growing up in India, even before the onset of satellite TV and globalized culture! Maybe Scout was right when she said that there are just one type of folks, "Folks", and folks everywhere have related to the book over the last 50 years.

I have re-read the book many times. I go back to it almost every other year and have gifted the book to numerous friends and family members. In Scout and Atticus I have secretly seen myself and my dad, and now that he is no more I go to this book for most of my parenting and life advice.

So as you can imagine, as soon as the news first broke in February that a previously unpublished Harper Lee's novel was going to be released on July 14th, 2015, I was one-clicking my way to pre-ordering it. All the books I have been reading since that announcement seem like "opening acts" for the headliner, and I don't mean that derogatorily. Some of the opening acts are stars in their own right.

It has been a month of David Mitchell for me and J.K.Rowling for my daughter. While she wrapped up 5 of the Harry Potters in one month, I managed to finish "Cloud Atlas" and "Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet" by Mitchell. While everyone raves about Cloud Atlas, I felt Thousand Autumns was a much better book. I enjoyed the pace, the setting (Japan), the period (beginning of the 19th century) and the voices. I am looking forward to Mitchell's Slade House to be released this October.

I had never heard of Karen Joy Fowler until the book "We are all completely beside ourselves" made the short list for the Booker. I finally picked up this book and I am glad I did not read a single review of it on the web as I believe most reviews contain spoilers. This was a book that I wrapped up in one day. When my alarm rang at 5AM for me to wake up and hit the gym, I simply turned on the light and picked up the book and read for 3 hours straight! I don't want to say more so I don't give away anything. But this is a book worth reading!

As part of my trip to Tanzania I read "Out of Africa", having previously only seen the Meryl Streep movie. This of course is the famous memoir of Karen Blixen who spent 17 years in Kenya trying to manage a coffee farm. Her fiercely independent spirit comes through in her writing and while some of the writing is written from a position of power, she also offers some deep insights into African culture, the people and their customs, and also about the colonists.

So i read two women writers in June, and two male writers. The second male writer was Colm Toibin who has become another of my favorite writers. I have previously raved about how well he writes women in his books. Nora Webster is another jewel in his crown. This also belongs to the category of hard-to-put down books for me. At 46, the heroine Nora loses her husband, is teetering on poverty, and is trying to do it right by her 4 kids and by herself. How she deals with her loss in a small Irish town where everyone knows everyone else and gossip and grief go together while "The Troubles" are also brewing in the macro world is just so beautifully written! The book is a triumph not just because of how Nora's character is portrayed, but also because of the care with which every single supporting character has been etched by Toibin! Once again he is hands down the best male writer to write women.

Now i am trying to read "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt, but unfortunately the mind is wandering to "Go Set a watchman" and I feel that maybe I should read "To Kill a Mockingbird" instead so I can prepare myself for the almost 30 year old Scout and the much older Atticus. My only regret is that my dad is not alive for this event. As I turn the pages on the adult Scout and the elderly Atticus, I know i will miss my own father, who would've read the book along with me and discussed it at length. Will Scout still have the same closeness with Atticus? Will Atticus remain the ideal man that he was 20 years back? Will Go Set a Watchman live up to the expectations?

Few more days to find out....

Jambo Jambo to the land of Hakuna Matata - Part 2

Day 0: Arrival into Arusha

Carved from a single piece of wood over 30 years

Landed in JRO airport around 8:30PM after a 20 hour flight journey. Bags arrived safe and sound. Greeted by Thomson folks and loaded into the Rovers. After a 45 min ride we reached RiverTree Country Inn where we were to spend the night. We could hear a stream in the background and smell an earthy green smell. Treated to a refreshing juice on arrival and after an initial round of introduction to the team and briefing we were quickly shown to our rooms.

Day 1: Arusha to Tarangire
After breakfast we met our head guide and the entire team that was going to be traveling with us for the next 8 days. We were going to Tarangire National Park famous for its herd of elephants. We stopped at the Cultural Center in Arusha, and were treated to some amazing African art.

At the entrance of the park we had a quick boxed lunch which was delicious. I was trying hard not to let my imagination get ahead of me. But I needn't have worried as nothing prepared us for what we were about to see. Impalas, Giraffes and Elephants of course, in herds of dozens to hundreds! The highlight of the day was seeing one such herd come down to a watering hole and quenching their thirst. A month old baby was  protected by the group and watching the baby scratch his royal bottom had us all in splits.

The Lone Mourner who couldn't walk away

I also experienced a humbling moment when we encountered a grieving elephant who was finding it hard to say goodbye to his/her dead companion. As much as I tried hard to not attribute anthropomorphic characteristics to this mourner, it was clear that this pachyderm was in sorrow. It was a riveting sight and left us humbled.

After a day of excitement we went to our campsite and checked out our tents. Treated to some bajiya for snack, had a hot shower and a delicious dinner and retired for the night. We were each given an alarm bell to ring in case of an emergency. Luckily we never had to use it even once.

The night was filled with sounds of elephants trumpeting, hyenas howling and some of us even heard lions roaring

Day 2: Tarangire

The kids started the day with looking for tracks of nocturnal visitors to the camp. Hyenas had left their footprints in the sand. This day was dedicated to exploring Tarangire. While the focus was on elephants, the fledgling birder in me has to mention the birds. The three birds that defined the trip for

Lilac Breasted Roller

me were the Lilac breasted roller, the Superb Starling (completely worthy of its name) and the White Headed Buffalo weaver! Having seen them only in aviaries in zoos before I was thrilled to see them in plenty in the wild.

The highlights for the day were our encounter with the first lion, seeing thousands of elephants near the swampy marshes in Tarangire and dealing with the anger of one of the matriarchs who was clearly not happy with visitors as she was fiercely protecting a newborn in her clan. We respected her wishes and left her clan in peace so much so we only have a mental picture of the incident. The mother in me understood where the matriarch was coming from.

In all the focus on the mammals I should not miss the trees of Tarangire. The Baobab or the upside down tree left its mark on the landscape. It was interesting to note that the Baobab's seeds need to be cooked to a certain temperature for it to germinate. This is achieved inside the gut of the elephants

The Baobab or Upside down tree

that feast on them. The Baobabs also have numerous scratches on them as the elephants seek them out to quench their thirst during the dry season. With a girth that would make Henry the VIII envious, the Baobabs give the Redwoods stiff competition for being the oldest living things on the planet. I would've loved to taste the leaves of the Baobab as they are supposed to be a delicacy and as nutritious as spinach.The other distinct trees were the sausage trees and the candelabras.

Day 2 ended with lessons in Swahili, some soccer and delicious dinner as always.

Day 3: Tarangire to Ngorongoro

Today we were heading out to the Ngorongoro Highlands to the Conservation Area.  The Masai are allowed to live within the area although the crater floor is dedicated to the wildlife. This was the big distinction between a Conservation Area and a National Park. The Crater has one of the highest concentration of wildlife.

Friendly soccer game at Aya Labe School

We first stopped at a local school called the Aya Labe School and interacted with the Head Master and some of the students. It was heartening to see so many girls at the school. The school had its own farm and a huge soccer field. The girls took to soccer with as much enthusiasm as the boys. After a friendly game of soccer we headed out to the famous Gibbs farm.

Hands down one of the most beautiful farms we've been to. It is a sprawling coffee estate, and the farm serves locally grown food in an ambience that is tasteful and luxurious. A resident artist was creating his masterpiece as we watched him work. The area was full of weavers (of the bird kind).

Then we continued onward to the Conservation area and reached our Nyumba. I have to mention our two local Masai warriors who were to guard us in the night with their spears.  Like Argus with a Hundred Eyes, they seemed to have eyes all over their body. If we ever strode away from the camp site, they were right behind us offering us protection! Not sure if it is a myth, but we heard that even lions back down when they see a Masai warrior and I can see why. I certainly felt safe knowing we had a warrior outside our tents, but thankfully the warriors never had to use their spears.

Day 4: Ngorongoro

This day was dedicated to wildlife viewing in the Ngorongoro Crater. The Crater is famous for the

A view of the crater from above

Big 5 - Lion, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant and Cape Buffalo. The Big 5 is a term coined by game hunters as the 5 most difficult to hunt. Other than the leopard we saw the Big 4 at the crater.

The origin of the name Ngorongoro was very interesting. It refers to the sound of the bells worn by the Masai warriors who went into battle in the 1800s. The sound struck terror into the hearts of their enemies and hid the fact that the Masai warriors were actually very few in number.

A solitary black rhino

A Flamboyance of Flamingoes

Once again nothing prepared us for the sights we were to see. Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically through the plains (to quote Basil Fawlty) and buffaloes were only the start. Zebras locked in embrace as a camouflage were everywhere. We saw a pride of 5 lions, and one pair chose to mate right in front of our van. Happy to report that the kids took it in casually. The Crater was also home to the endangered black rhinos. We were lucky enough to spot a couple of them. Although no one knows the actual number of Rhinos in the crater we heard a number as low as 26. Poaching has been a huge problem until severe crackdown of poachers began a few years back.

There were no Impalas in the crater, but the place was teeming with Thomson's gazelle. The other highlight for us was the flamingo population at the saline lakes inside the crater. We saw a sea of pink from a distance. If you ever wondered why a group of flamingoes is called a "flamboyance", you can stop wondering. What a fitting term! The animals here are permanent residents as there is water available even during the dry season.

Often referred to as the cradle of life, or the Noah's ark of wildlife the crater defies definition and has to be experienced by every wildlife lover.

We had a picnic lunch at a hippo pool, and as we were heading back saw a few Masai herding cattle in the area. Our guide stopped to hand one of the young warriors a water bottle which was gratefully accepted.

Day 4 ended with delicious Tanzanian dinner and the kids learning to play Bao (very similar to "pallangkuzhi")

Days 5 : Ngorongoro to Serengeti

Today was the D day. We were heading to Serengeti, the majestic endless plains that at 6000 square miles is still only the second largest park in Tanzania but is the most famous. Its landscape comprising of savannah, kopjes, acacia trees, and hills. As we bid goodbye to the crater, we went through the Malanja depression and encountered many Masai along the way including boys with some kind of a face paint on them (probably getting ready for their circumcision ceremonies).

The Oldupai Gorge - home of early Hominids

Enroute we stopped at the famous Oldupai gorge. Oldupai (not Olduvai as misspelt by the German colonizers) has the oldest known evidence for hominid evolution and is the site made famous by the First Family of paleontology the Leakeys Louis Leakey was also the mentor for Jane Goodall and i especially remembered his famous saying "We redefine tool, or redefine man, or accept chimps as humans" following the chimp tool use discovery by Jane Goodall. We took a tour through the small museum and attended a very informative lecture on the geology and historical significance of Oldupai. An amazing place to visit, and it was quite moving to be there. It put us humans and our relatively short history in perspective.

As soon as we entered Serengeti we were stunned by the thousands of wildebeest as migration was in progress. Serengeti lived up to its name right away, as within 5 minutes into the park we encountered a pride of 6 lions just by the roadside. In all the excitement on seeing the lions we lost sight of the wildebeest and that proved costly, as that was to have been the only opportunity of witnessing the migration for us.

Close Encounter of the Spotted Kind

We had a boxed lunch and did a small hike to a nearby view point from where we saw little dark blobs of wildebeest dotting the plains everywhere around us. As we made our way into the park we were lucky to have a leopard walk right before our eyes. That  would be the highlight of the day, and was the closest we would ever get to a leopard in
the wild. Serval was another beautiful cat that we had a chance to observe in close quarters.

It was a long dusty, hot day but very rewarding in terms of game viewing. So we retired to our Nyumbas early and got a glimpse of the sun setting over the Serengeti plains.

Day 6: Serengeti

The acacia tree houses a couple of lions

This day will be best remembered for chasing after cats. We went from Kopje to Kopje and saw a pride of lions at almost each one of them. Serengeti is also the one place where we can see lions climb trees and sure enough we saw a bunch of those too. At last count we had seen close to 45 lions in a half day of game viewing.

Cheetahs were very elusive and we managed to catch a glimpse of a couple of them hidden in the grass. Cheetahs are day time hunters unlike the other big cats. Still the two we saw were just happy to laze around in the grass.

The two curious animals for me were the Agama Lizard (shocking red and blue), and the Hyraxes which looked like rodents but were apparently related to elephants!

The evening was spent beading and story telling. Our mentor talked about the value of story telling in an oral culture like the Masai. Every story had a moral and passed on important messages and values from one generation to the other. With rain pelting the plains, the kids were happy to curl around the mentor and hear and share stories.

Day 7: Serengeti

The day belonged to the hippos. We went from one hippo pool to another and saw hundreds of them lazing around. It is a wonder that some of the largest animals in the world are herbivores! Hippos kill more people in Africa than any other large mammal and so deserve our respect despite their lazy demeanor.

Death of a Hippo, Feast of a Crocodile

The kids were mostly seeing life everywhere around them, and today they also encountered death as we saw a massive floating dead hippo in the pool. A Nile Crocodile was stealthily feasting on the hippo.

The rest of the afternoon was hijacked by birds - from big ones like the ostrich to small ones like the larks, we saw so many species that at last count we were at 52 species! Didn't expect a bird bonanza at Serengeti.

Day 8 - Final Day

Clearing the "runway" with a rover

Although it was the final day, the adventure was not yet over. We were to depart to Arusha in a small 13 seater plane. The runway was flattened grass which was shared in true African style with Zebras and Giraffes. The Rover had to go around chasing them from the runway so our plane could land and take off! From high above we spotted our camps and for the first time it hit me how truly I was in complete wilderness in the middle of nowhere!

Our camp from up above

A week went by so quickly, but it was a week when every moment was truly savored. Disconnecting ourselves from the digital world, helped us all connect very closely to
each other and the physical world around us. With immense gratitude to the guides, drivers, camp staff, chefs we said our last good byes. This was truly an experience like no other. In a time when you hear about species extinction at alarming rates everyday, seeing so many animal babies in these protected areas made me feel more optimistic. All of us felt that this is an experience that will stay with us forever.

Will I ever visit Africa again? I honestly don't know, but I sure hope that my daughter would and she would be able to bring her kids some day to soak in the wildlife as she did. Will the Rhino be around? What about the Leopards and Cheetah? Will they become relics of the past or will they live to tell a tale, not just in the form of "Lion King"?

Jambo Jambo to the land of Hakuna Matata - Part 1

I have waited a lifetime for this - a trip to Africa, especially Tanzania and the wait was finally over this month. Ever since I watched "Gods must be crazy" and "Beautiful people" back in the '80s I knew that if there was one place I wanted to visit it was Africa. So 10 years back, my husband and I booked ourselves on a Serengeti Safari. A few months before the trip I found myself pregnant and in no condition to travel and had to cancel. The last 10 years has been a lot of fun thanks to the third member of the family, and we were waiting for her to grow up before we decided to try Tanzania again. Second time was the charm for us.

When we first let people know we were going to Tanzania we elicited many responses

Land Rovers and Safaris - Match made in heaven

• Category 1: Those who thought we were outright crazy - isn't it the land of conflicts, Ebola and the notorious Tse Tse, not to mention haven't we heard of people being mauled to death by lions?
• Category 2:Those who had done this before and who told us we would be just fine and this will be the best thing we've ever done in our life

The first category, are well wishers and we are thankful for their concerns and are glad to be back to tell the tale and hopefully this will convince them that a) we are not that crazy b) they can also do this. The second category - they are prophets and soothsayers and now having done the trip, we gladly join that clan of evangelists for Tanzania.

There were also questions about affordability. This is certainly a trip that is worth saving for and can be achieved with a little bit of planning and prioritization. I have always believed accumulating experiences is better than accumulating material goods.

Some of the warmest, diverse people we've met

Tanzania turned out to be everything we dreamed of, and nothing that we dreaded about. Also called as the Switzerland of Africa, it is amazing to see a country with a colonial past, one that is surrounded by so many conflicts, populated by 120+ tribes remain a multicultural, peaceful hub. The people are one of the friendliest, and the language Swahili which unites all the different tribes liberally borrows from other languages especially Indian ones (Bajia, Dhukan, Kitabu, Shukran for starters). A large number of Gujarati settlers from West Coast of India arrived as businessmen in the East Coast of Africa and their influence is seen everywhere.

Although we never got to visit a Masai Boma, we were lucky enough to interact with a few Masai warriors who guarded our camps with spears and also with some of our guides who hail from the Masai ethnic group. Some of them still "keep the culture" while others have let go. We learned from them that cattle fights are mostly things of the past, Masais are taking to cell phones, they are somewhat reluctantly sending their kids to school and are trying to deal with change as best as they can. One of our guides recommended a book called "Is it possible" which addresses the challenges faced by Masai in finding a balance between tradition and modernity. As we were told that taking a picture of the Masai without some kind of compensation was akin to stealing their soul, I refrained from taking pictures except for the one long distance shot. Although not one to pay attention to clothing and jewelry even I found it hard to not admire their Shuka and the long ear rings that adorned the women.

I realize that the phrase Benevolent Dictator is an oxymoron but from everything we heard about President Nyerere he seems to fit the phrase to a T. After 20 years in office he left the country with strong social gains, albeit in poor financial shape. If today Tanzania is renowned for its conservation and for its national parks then Nyerere deserves some credit for that. We also learned a bit about the conflict between Kenya and Tanzania along the borders between Serengeti and Masai Mara. Animals of course don't know borders and migration happens seamlessly between the two countries although Tanzania has the largest area of the Serengeti under its control.

June is a great time to visit Tanzania. It marks the beginning of the cool, dry season and while Ngorongoro region is quite chilly in the night time, the overall weather was very pleasant. It is also the mating season and we were treated to some amazing courtship dances and child rearing scenes from the animal kingdom. Babies were everywhere - from Egyptian geese chicks, to elephant calves, lion cubs, baby hippos. It touched my heart to know that there exists a place in this world for hundreds of thousands of animals to live and bring up their young without too much human infringement.

Dinner tents

Tents that shame Buster Keaton!

Preparing for the trip included making sure we were up to date on shots and also getting additional shots for Yellow Fever and Typhoid. Anti-Malarial tablets were prescribed and some of us took it and others didn't. Citronella was the "perfume" of the day to keep the Tse tse at bay. We are happy to report that we were not haunted by mosquitoes, and the Tse Tse were easily manageable and most of the times hardly noticeable. We were asked to drink bottled water everywhere and at the camp sites reminded to "washy washy" before every meal.With these simple precautions we enjoyed a safe and memorable safari. As always I did my reading for the trip which included "Worlds of the Masai", "Out of Africa" and "The Tree where Man was Born". Also purchased a Wildlife guide for East Africa which came in extremely handy. A couple of trips to REI and we were all set!

Picnic Lunches Safari Style

We were promised luxurious, yet Eco-friendly campsites and they delivered on their promises. At first glance the camps reminded me of Buster Keaton's in "Battling Butler", and having experience it can safely say our camp and service would put Buster's Butler to shame. Flush toilets, solar lighting and hot showers in every tent redefined camping in the wilderness for us. Boxed and Picnic lunches were extraordinary not just because of their culinary value, but also because of the presentation and Eco-friendliness - steel tiffins, reusable cutlery, plates and cups and a Masai Shuka for tablecloth. Transportation was on Land Rovers with a convertible type roof and having spent a good chunk of 7 days on them I can safely say that these vehicles were designed for Safaris and can take on just about any terrain with aplomb! Our wake up call was "Jambo Jambo" and when the camp crew came to our tent to call out "Jambo Jambo" and hand us a jug of hot water to wash our faces we didn't have to nag our kids to wake up. They were out of their beds in a jiffy!

That's enough background for now and it's time to focus on the wildlife. Before I move onto Part 2 for a Day by Day highlights of our week long safari I have to mention a few words about our tour operator - Thomson Safaris

There are a number of options available if you want to choose from a local company in Africa. As this was our first visit to Africa and we were bound to have a lot of questions I picked a US based operator - Thomson Safaris. They are a slightly more expensive than the others, but are very experienced (30 years in Africa), with a long history in the region, and extremely reliable.

Thomson worked out splendidly for us. All their local Tanzanian employees have been with them quite long (4 years to 30 years). Everyone seemed very happy with their employer and this we could sense from the warmth and the service we received on the ground. The company is involved in many good projects in the community that we had a chance to check out (Aya Labe School, Sangha etc).

One of the safari goers had an emergency (appendix burst) and needed a surgery. He had to be rushed to Arusha, and was immediately operated upon. When he rejoined the safari we heard from him the kind of support he received on the ground from Thomson folks. We were very happy for that family and very pleased with our choice.

Thomson sends detailed checklists, action items including obtaining visa, shots, what to pack etc. So it was very easy to prepare for the safari. So they have our family's hearty recommendation.


OK now for Part 2 and the actual details of what we did in Tanzania.

May - The Month of Reading Women

When you get your child a Kindle, she turns quiet and spends 4 hours straight on it, that you have 4 quiet hours for yourself to read too! That's what happened at our home the first summer weekend. As you can see from the list below, I've had a productive month of reading.

"Primeval and other times" by Olga Tokarczuk kicked off this month. She was my choice for OBOC - Poland. The concept itself is not new. Primeval tells the history of Poland from 1914 to contemporary times from a microcosmic view of a small village called Primeval, its inhabitants both living, non-living and the super natural. But the execution was very refreshing! The chapters were each very short and was written from the point of view of one character but time was flowing and horrific and unimaginable events were happening in the background and every character including the flora and fauna are all affected by the events. This does not mean the book was entirely dark, although some chapters were very hard for me to read. But there is still so much beauty in everyday life - whether you are grinding coffee, milking the cow, planting bushes, or collecting mushrooms in the wild. God on the other hand seems to have become bored with mankind and has abandoned him and viceversa.

The non-fiction choice of this month was "Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA" by Brenda Maddox. Numerous books have already been written about the discovery of the Double Helical structure of the DNA. But most of the narrative have been around the three men - Watson, Crick and Wilkins with Rosalind's role being minimized to having contributed a X-ray evidence. In reality we now know that Rosalind Franklin's role was much more than that and she herself was only a couple of steps away from the grand discovery herself. That the science world and especially the Noble Committee has not been fair to women is widely known. Even today it is not easy for women to succeed in what is perceived as a man's world. So one can only imagine what Franklin must've faced in the 1950's. With a superlative scientific brain, a stream of publications that would do any scientist proud, with path breaking work in crystallography with coal, DNA and Viruses it is just unbelievable that Franklin is not widely known. Maddox's biography is a very engaging read and sheds light on some of the reasons why the dark lady has been kept in the dark. A must-read book!

Now onto the dystopian world. I wrapped up "Station Eleven" by Emily St.John Mandel and it is a great book, no doubt! Part mystery, part post-apocalyptic novel, part ode to Shakespeare and the theater, it tells the story of humanity (or at least whatever survives of it) after a "Georgian flu" pandemic wipes out most of the world as we know it. With no more cars, planes, Internet, Television, Medicine and Nation States the world is a tough place to live in and people band together in small communities and eke out a living. The Traveling Symphony visits some of these towns and performs Shakespeare alluding to the fact that the bard himself was a product of the black plague. The book and the writer have so much promise. If you've not read "The Road" by Cormac Mcarthy you will give much more praise to Emily Mandel. Unfortunately I read both these books in parallel and while "The Road" scared and scarred me, "Station Eleven" left me a bit unmoved as the survivors of Station seemed to be doing OK and were very civilized for having lived through such a disaster.

I also read "Angelmaker" by Nick Harkaway (incidentally the son of the illustrious LeCarre). A thoroughly enjoyable book with a very interesting premise. Steampunk to the core. A bit wordy and long, but still able to hold your attention. 

Overall a wonderful month of reading (mainly) women and I am now ready for June and looking forward to summer!

Fondness for Dystopia

It is hard not to be optimistic in Spring when there is life all around you. There is rain in SoCal, the Say's Phoebe's babies have successfully fledged, the terns have arrived, the kangaroo paws blooming in my yard are attracting so many bees, our daughter shot up a couple more inches, and despite my neglect my tomato plant yielded me a bounty. Sounds like utopia, right?


The books I've been reading the past month and a half on the other hand have left me very unsettled. Dystopian worldview ("Bone Clocks" by David Mitchell), loss of species ("Sixth Extinction" by Elizabeth Kolbert) , loss of a way of life ("The worlds of a Maasai warrior"  for OBOC - Tanzania by Tepilit Ole Saitoti) and political turmoil in Illustrado for OBOC-Philippines by Miguel Syjuco is as good/bad as it gets.

Of these books I loved Sixth Extinction the best. No wonder it has won accolades as the best Science Writing for 2014. If there is one nonfiction you plan to read this year let it be Sixth Extinction. Starting with the golden Panamanian frogs, moving onto Great Auks, the Sumatran Rhino and countless other species that are lost to us forever, Kolbert's book is a very important one for this Anthropocene era. Part travel book, part dystopian non-fiction this book asks us some tough questions and what it means to be the superweed species on earth taking over everything and in the process cutting down the very limb we are standing on.

I missed the entire "cloud atlas" wave and vaguely remember sleeping through the movie version too, so  I was nervous to commit myself to "Bone Clocks", but I am glad I persevered. Following the life of Holly Sykes from 1984 to 2043 the novel is written from the viewpoint of multiple characters who are all connected with Holly in some way. Holly is also a pawn caught in the bigger war between two groups of immortals - the Horologists and Anchorites, and so you have a bunch of fantasy fiction thrown in for good measure alongside the dystopian view of 2043. 2043 seemed very bleak - the Chinese are calling the shots, gangs steal solar panels, kids born after 2039 don't know what the Internet is or have never seen an airplane, and all kinds of diseases are back in full form. At my day job I spend a good part of my time re imagining the future with technology and then I read dystopian novels in the night - i guess i see both sides of the coin.

For OBOC, I have given up all manner of order and sequence and reading books in the order of what I find. Illustrado was my pick for Philippines. It is a Man Asian Award winner, but unfortunately did not do much for me.  The author is digging into the life of his mentor, Crispin Salvador the most famous writer from Philippines shortly after his death which remains a mystery - homicide or suicide. More importantly what happened to the book that Crispin was supposed to be writing that would embarrass so many of the leading Fillipino families? As the author tries to unravel this mystery we get a view of Philippines from different lenses - the life of Crispin, the life of Miguel, the autobiography that Miguel is writing about Crispin and the fictional world created by Crispin. The moment you call something post modern you have to expect a higgledy piggledy approach to the novel. Narratives are intermingled and some of the pieces are very well written, but again this is not a form I enjoy, so it was a huge effort to complete the book.

For OBOC Tanzania I picked "The worlds of a Masai warrior" written by the "Man of Serengeti" Tepilit Ole Saitoti. This is a short autobiography of how the writer went from Masai land to getting his education from some of the prestigious schools in the US and how he is caught between two cultures. It is a great insight into the culture and ways of the Masai, their relationship to the land and the animals, their view on modernization and education.

I am not going to do a Freudian analysis on why I (like countless others) enjoy dystopian literature. But I am certainly relieved to be reading them than living them, and maybe these worst case scenarios actually help me appreciate what I have today more earnestly.


Overall has been a great month for reading although I managed only 1 woman writer. Hope to fix that soon. I have began reading "Station Eleven" by Emily St Mandel John - another dystopian novel set in the future with Shakespeare to the rescue. Interesting premise and loving it so far. Have been reading the Bard too for a class on Coursera and read 3 of his plays after a really long time, and I am a much better person for having read him. After all we will always have Shakespeare no matter how the world changes!

Black Dolls

Such elaborate outfits!

The Mingei International Museum's exhibit on Black Dolls was just breathtaking. I spent close to 3 hours gazing at these dolls that had so many stories to tell. In a day and age when Barbie (who incidentally is banned from our house), and Disney Princesses have become the defacto choice of dolls for little girls everywhere it was refreshing to see dolls with a different skin tone, from a different time.

Coconut shells for heads!

Apparently the models started crying, and so they ended up as crybabies

Were these dolls made by the slaves for the white children left in their care, or were these dolls made for their own children? We don't know for sure. It seems highly unlikely white children in late 1800s, early 1900s were given these black dolls as playthings, although there was one photograph to prove it was not completely out of the question. It was also nice to know that sometimes boys too got these dolls as gifts.

Some of the dolls were so elegantly dressed. Were these the aspirations of a suppressed population? Other dolls seemed to have a patchwork quilt of an outfit - i was told that maybe the mothers let their young daughters make these clothes as a way to teach them sewing.

Look at the wrinkles on her face. No Botox can create such a beauty!

But what was remarkable was the variety of materials used - whether it was coconut for a head, leather, wood - the unknown artists managed to evoke so many variety of expressions from these dolls.

Wooden dolls that were used for entertainment. Reminded me of the Indian "marapachis"

In many ways this is an exhibit every child should see. It is a celebration of diversity and a discussion around the definitions of beauty.  Many thanks to the Mingei Museum for all the work they do that reflects and celebrates the Multicultural society that we live in.

Walking in the footsteps of John Muir

Tissiack - "the most beautiful and most sublime of all the wonderful Yosemite rocks, rising in serene majesty from flowery groves and meadows" - Muir on the Half Dome

This week my daughter added a new word to our lingo "domesickness" which she describes as an illness that is caught in Yosemite valley after you get a first glimpse of the Dome and hits its peak when you leave the valley. Symptoms include craning your neck looking for Half Dome even when you know you are several hundred miles away from it or searching through pebbles in your backyard for those that remotely resemble the famous one, and simply seeing shadows of it even when eyes are closed.Yes this week we all caught Domesickness as we finally made it to the incomparable Yosemite.

National Parks are uniquely American, and to know that Yosemite was the one that inspired it all gave us an unexplainable but immense pride. I have been reading John Muir for the last few weeks in anticipation of this trip and as I sat down to write this blog, I realized that no words from me can parallel his and maybe i should just quote him.

Both day and night, winter and summer, this divine light may be seen wherever water is falling dancing, singing; telling the heart-peace of Nature amid the wildest displays of her power - Muir on rainbows

This was our 10th National Park (12th if you include National Monuments), and nothing evokes a feeling of awe in me as standing so small in front of something so big in nature - whether it is the El Capitan, a giant Sequoia or the Yosemite falls. Standing at the foothills of Mt.Rainier a couple of months after my dad passed away back in 2003 I remember feeling for the first time truly comforted. When I saw a Mama Blue Whale with her calf in Channel Islands National Park the sight moved me almost to the point of tears (of joy). As I was trying to explain to my then 5 year old why we don't do Seaworld, we had hundreds of dolphins suddenly spring up as though on cue convincing our little one why this was so much better! I can safely say that the closest I have come to spiritual experiences have been in these parks, and as a family we feel that the time spent in these places fit for worship have rejuvenated us like no other.

"It sways and sings in the wind, clad in gauzy, sun-sifted spray, half falling, half floating, it seems infinitely gentle and fine; but the hymns it sings tell the solemn fateful power hidden beneath its soft clothing" - Muir on the Pohono or Bridal Veil Fall

"Though only a few inches long, so intense is his fiery vigour and restlessness, he stirs every grove with wild life and makes himself more important than even the huge bears... No one who makes the acquaintance of our forester will fail to admire him" - Muir on  Douglas Squirrels

To quote Muir "Thousands of tired, nerve shaken, over civilized people are beginning to find that going to the mountains is going home". People just appear happier, stronger, kinder in these places. You also see every shade of society in these parks - the super rich and the elite who will not blink at spending a $1000/night for the best view out of their hotel rooms, the $20 camper who arguably has the best view in the park, the adrenalin types who tightrope walk between the cliffs above the Yosemite falls, the old couple who have spent every spring of the last decade at the park, the families that want to unplug, the families that want to recharge, the rock climber, the birder, the tree hugger, the photographer  - you name it, you will find one of those species here.  

"stand beside the majestic pines and firs and sequoias silent and awestricken, as if in the presence of superior beings new arrived from some other star, so calm and bright and godlike they are" - Muir on the trees of the Sierra

My husband once said after a tour of Europe that although he admired the castles and all, they only reminded him of human inequality, war and unhappiness, whereas in a National Park in the US, we humans appear so insignificant and he could truly experience something glorious. Of course every National Park has in its history a story of Native Americans who were disenfranchised and are now only remembered for lending their names to some of the landmarks. That is a topic for another time.



Back to Yosemite. As I said earlier I have let John Muir (and my daughter - you can see her blog on Yosemite here) do the writing as we explored the park to our heart's content. Our three main hikes were getting to the top of Nevada fall through the Mist Trail and coming down the John Muir trail, walking down the 4 mile trail from Glacier Point and the 5 mile loop around Mirror Lake.We couldn't get to the Tioga area as it was closed for the season, and although we wanted to see Hetch Hetchy we couldn't fit it in our schedule.  Also the fact that the valley that Muir once loved was under a dam, dampened some of our enthusiasm. "No holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man" said Muir regarding Hetch Hetchy, so my daughter decided to, and I quote "Ditch Ditchy, Hetch Hetchy"

"Gentle saurians, dragons, descendants of an ancient and mighty race. Heaven bless you all and make your virtues known! For few of us know as yet that scales may cover a fellow creatures as gentle and lovable as feathers, hair or cloth" - An ode to the lizards by Muir

When I said walking in the footsteps of Muir, that was only figuratively speaking. His recommendation for a one-day excursion included waking up at 3AM, grabbing a handful of dry foods, climbing up Glacier Pt, Sentinel Dome, Liberty Cap, Illiloute fall, Vernal and Nevada fall and return by night fall after having paused to admire every creature in the valley. How did he do that!

We spent 4 days in the valley and soaked in everything we could. One always feels time-impoverished in these places.  The road trip was also a stark reminder of the drought in California. "If water doesn't flow, food doesn't grow" said many placards on the roadside. "No water, no jobs" said Central Valley. While citizens have been asked to be more water-wise, and yes every Californian should do their part, there is a need for a more open, honest debate about food, agriculture and the big one - Climate Change. Everything is connected to everything else and understanding these links is going to be crucial to finding real solutions.

After all "When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world".

Books of March

I have been reading at a frantic pace despite my frantic work schedule. Am trying to wrap up "Bring up the Bodies" by Hilary Mantel before we get too far with the PBS Series Wolf Hall. Don't know if I can, but am making very good progress.

In the meantime I've been reading a number of smaller books (smaller in size, not in stature). The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd was one that I've seen many times in the library, but finally picked it up this time. I loved the book as it is an ode to sisterhood. Raising bees or children - the things we can achieve with a sisterhood to back us up!

I also read "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" by Mark Haddon. I enjoyed this one a lot too - told from a differently enabled child's view point, and written in a very different style. I am saving this book for my daughter to read at an appropriate age.

Ursula Le Gunn has been our bedtime storyteller this past month. My daughter still enjoys my read-aloud to her before bed, and so I picked "Wizard of Earthsea" as our book as I am coming to these books for the first time too. Now I know why she is idolized by so many other SF writers. She is truly the master/mistress of her craft.

Also completed Neil Gaiman's Stardust. Of all the books by Gaiman that I have read, i think Stardust was my least favorite. Somehow it was hard for me to get into the story.

I have also been reading the writings of John Muir in anticipation of our trip to Yosemite. A poet, prophet, scientist, activist all rolled into one. The man towers as high as some of the giant rocks and trees and waterfalls in the parks he tried to protect. More about him and our trip in my next post.

In all this while it certainly looks like I have abandoned OBOC, it is not completely true. I only abandoned Paraguay as it was so hard to get my mind around Augusto Roa Bastos' I, the Supreme. Too hard, and too time consuming and not at all fun. Am onto Philippines instead and hoping it will be relatively easier.

For April, I have Bring up the Bodies, Far Pavilions, Illustrado and maybe a Dalrymple non-fiction. Too ambitious? Time will tell...

Soundtrack for our roadtrip

I often wonder what do different families do on roadtrips. Ours always listens to music and on a recent 7 hour drive that's all we did. We usually let our daughter be the DJ, and although she tends to monopolize she sometimes also takes requests. We are not the Pandora/Spotify family but are a good old classic iPod family with a 80GB library so there is usually enough choices available. I have always wanted to document what we listened to on our numerous trips mainly to see how our individual/collective tastes change but never got around to it.

This time our daughter decided to go alphabetically and this made documenting a lot easy. While most of the artists below were her choices she did ask us to pick an artist or two for a few letters of the alphabet. Some letters had more choices than others and we chose to spend more time on some letters than others. We had more choices in B, and just one in I. We also initially agreed that there would be only 1 song per artist, but we made a few exceptions along the way. After all when we came to I, she said "we obviously can't have just 1 song for Illayaraja"!

So here is our list. For the sake of brevity i have not captured the titles for each artist.

A - Abba, A-ha, Alan Parsons Project

B - Beatles, Bangles, Beautiful South, BB King, M.Balamurali Krishna

C - The Clash, Chuck Berry, Crowded House

D - Def Leppard

E - Eagles, Edith Piaf, Eric Clapton

F - Fela Kuti

G - Guns 'n' roses

H - The Hurricanes, Hollywood Gold Orchestra, Hariprasad Chaurasia (Nothing But Wind)

I - Illayaraja

J- John Lennon, Johnny Cash, Jayashri (Bombay)

K - Khaira Arby, Kishore Kumar, Kishori Amonkar

L - Lata Mangeshkar, London Philharmonic

M - Massive Attack, Madonna, Madurai Somu

N- Nina Simone, Nirvana

O - O.S.Arun

P - Police, Portishead

Q - Queen

R - Radiohead, (Maharajapuram) Ramachandran

S- The Smiths, Stealers Wheels

T- Thievery corporation

U- UB40 and U2

V- Vampire Weekend

W- Who

Y- Yesudas

Z - Zakir Hussain

Big surprises this roadtrip - no T.M.Krishna or Sanjay Subramaniam for some reason, also missed REM. She spent an hour immersed in a book in the backseat, so we enjoyed almost an hour of Madurai Somu after a long time and a jugalbandi by Balamurali Krishna and Kishori Amonkar. This was also the trip she discovered A-Ha and it hurt us big time :) Overall we were happy with the company and thankful we are not yet hosting the Biebers, Swifts and Perrys of the world.

Here Comes the Sun, and I say it's alright!

“In the spring at the end of the day you should smell like dirt”, said one of my favorite writers of all time. Although my garden patch has been neglected (or should I say, returned to the wild) I did manage to smell like dirt, mainly by composting. Forays into gardening have not been going well. Plants (like kids) demand so much love and attention, that I am sad to report I haven't been able to provide. So, amen to the woman who said that we can't have it all. I never seem to be able to manage a good garden. That doesn't mean I didn't welcome spring.

My daughter and I have been participating in Cornell’s Feederwatch since last winter and it has been fascinating to see the change in visitors to our backyard.So far we've been mainly spotting Mourning  Doves, a solitary Red Winged Blackbird, a few Finches, the White Crowned Sparrows, the California Towhees and the occasional Cooper's Hawk. But Mar 21st was special. A Spotted Towhee and a Say’s Phoebe (who I think is nesting at our home) appeared on cue the first day of spring. A baby bunny has also taken over our backyard nibbling on whatever patches of grass it can still find (In Southern California, I don’t plan to have a watered lawn in my backyard, thank you very much!).

Our backyard birding was fully rewarded when a dozen or so cedar waxwings came out of nowhere and alighted on the tree right behind our home! They were probably leaving So Cal having wintered here this season and decided to stop on their way back. Suddenly our daughter found a solitary hooded oriole. All this was in the span of an hour since we woke up on spring day. What a fantastic start!

One of my wise friends who got me started on birding once remarked that the moment you start truly seeing birds, the world will never look the same again. How true! Here we were looking at the waxwings and oriole with wide-eyed wonderment, and a bunch of early morning joggers were going by at the exact same time under the very tree unaware that they were in the midst of such beauty just above them. In a day and age when an experience that is not captured digitally and instagrammed right away is considered not an experience at all, we remained rooted to our spot and didn’t try to grab a phone/camera lest we disturb the birds.

The past three years we have always celebrated the arrival of spring at the San Elijo Lagoon, so off we went egg hunting at the lagoon in true pagan style basking in the glory of Venus and Ishtar. The lagoon captures everything that is amazing about So.Cal in one spot. At the distance you see the Pacific, the railroad, the beach goers and the surfers, and of course our cars. The sun is out and the sky is a picture perfect blue almost cloudless, and you have the lagoon with its coastal sage scrub and its flock of shore birds and visitors both the winged and the legged kind. I knew the spring was off to a great start as we once again caught a glimpse of the elusive Clapper, a Bufflehead and a bunch of Willets and Godwits. A big shout out to all the docents and volunteers who had such amazing exhibits and taught both the kids and adults a thing or two about the biological forms that call the lagoon their home, their summer retreat, or their spring nursery.

The exhibit that showed the different kinds of nests was my favorite. Sure does put all our homes to shame. While we need a thermostat named Nest to keep us comfortable, they make do with few bits and bobs of lichens, spider webs, mud, and straw providing maximum comfort to their little ones.

So that's how we welcomed spring, walking in nature as the poet and prophet Muir informed us receiving far more than we sought. Now the mountains are calling and I must go!