Susan Kay Anderson: Where I Used To Live (With Views of Rabbit Island)

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Mānana (Rabbit Island), a small islet located off the eastern windward shore of the island of Oahu, between Makapuu Point and Waimanalo: photo by Vernon Brown, 25 April 2009

That’s where I used to live.
Close to Rabbit Island. That’s where
I used to sleep. Under that ironwood
at the end of that beach access—
Hihimanu Street. All the old naupaka
gone now where cubbyholes existed—
dry, windless places—just one or two
where I’d find him crashed, reeking,
needing to hold onto me like a man
in the whole bunch of trouble that he was.

Mānana (Rabbit Island), Oahu: photographer unknown, original 1950s Kodachrome transparency; image by ElectroSpark, 4 March 2012

The island of Mānana, or Rabbit Island, with the smaller island of of Kaohikaipu in front of it (to the right in the photo): photo by Daniel Ramirez, 30 August 2008

Scaevola taccada (Beach Naupaka aka Naupaka Kahakai) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)

 
Scaevola taccada (Beach Naupaka aka Naupaka Kahakai) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)

Scaevola taccada (Beach Naupaka aka Naupaka Kahakai) (habitat). Kanaha Beach, Maui: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 9 February 2001 (from Plants of Hawaii)

Scaevola taccada (Beach Naupaka aka Naupaka Kahakai) (habitat over ocean). Growing on rocky volcanic soil, Pauwalu Point, Maui: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 12 October (from Plants of Hawaii)

Scaevola taccada (Beach Naupaka aka Naupaka Kahakai) (fruits). Kihei, Maui: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 9 March 2001 (from Plants of Hawaii)




Tournefortia argentea (Tree Heliotrope) (habitat). Growing amid volcanic tuff. With view of Mānana, or Rabbit Island, beyond. Kaohikaipu, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 24 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)

Ipomoea pes-caprae subsp. brasiliensis (Pohuehe/Beach Morning Glory) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)

Pluchea indica (Indian Fleabane) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)

 
Cenchrus ciliaris (Buffel Grass) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)

 Cenchrus ciliaris (Buffel Grass) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)

 
Euphorbia hirta (Hairy Spurge) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)

Argemone glauca (Pua Kala) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)

Cenchrus ciliaris (Buffel Grass) (habitat). Mānana, Oahu: photo by Forest and Kim Starr, 25 February 2005 (from Plants of Hawaii)

 

Makapuʻu Point, Oahu, with Mānana (Rabbit Island) beyond: photo by Lukas, 17 September 2008

Mānana Islet, off the coast of O‘ahu in Hawai‘i, here seen from the end of the Makai Pier: photo by Eric Guinther, 18 July 2005

Rabbit Island (Mānana), Oahu, Hawaii: photo by Peleg, September 2003

Waimanalo Beach Park, Oahu, Hawaii: photo by Joel Metlen, 6 May 2012

Waimanalo Beach Park, Oahu, Hawaii: photo by Sarah Gaston, 12 May 2012

Dorothy Parker: Comment

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Mating ritual of the James's Flamingo (Phoenicopterus jamesi); also known as the Puna Flamingo, it breeds on the high Andean plateaus of Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina: photo by Pedro Szekely, 19 August 2007

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song,
A medley of extemporanea;
And love is a thing that can never go wrong;
And I am Marie of Roumania.

The Common Jezebel (Delias eucharis), is a medium sized pierid butterfly found in many areas of South and Southeast Asia, especially in the non-arid regions of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand. The Common Jezebel is one of the most common species in the genus Delias. This individual is male. The butterfly may be found wherever there are trees, even in towns and cities, flies high among the trees and comes lower down only to feed on nectar in flowers. It rests with its wings closed exhibiting the brilliantly coloured underside. Due to this habit apparently, it has evolved a dull upper-side and a brilliant underside so that birds below it recognise it immediately while in flight and at rest. The bright coloration is to indicate the fact that it is unpalatable due to toxins accumulated by the larvae from the host-plants. Kadavoor, Kerala, India: photo by Jkadavoor. 12 December 2010

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967): Comment, from Enough Rope (1926)

I don't care what is written about me as long as it isn't true. -- DP

Marie of Roumania: Marie Alexandra Victoria (1875-1938), born in Kent, England, the daughter of Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and the former Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia, and granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She married Ferdinand of Romania in 1893, became Queen of the Romanians in 1914, and served as a nurse in World War I. They had six children. In November 1927 Marie made a triumphant tour of the United States, cut short because she had to return home for her dying husband.

Larry Beckett: Second Avenue

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Neon in the rain, downtown Portland: photo by Orbmiser, 17 March 2008

In the hissing street, that old girl goes
with a newspaper over her bowed head,
and I blow my hands and walk on hard
in the fool's rain on Second Avenue,

all the holes closed for the night
and the bad wine wearing off,
and nothing for the cold but that fire
in an iron barrel, my knowledge of you.

Neon, downtown Portland: photo by Orbmiser, 17 March 2008

Savanna Cat: Serval ("always being there, watchful, even when we do not hear it")

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Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya: photo by Valentina Storti, 11 August 2010

Though the book is known in English as The Leopard, the original title of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's novel Il Gattopardo in fact refers to a serval (Leptailurus serval). A savanna cat rarely seen north of the Sahara, the serval has a few remaining North African ranges, one of these bordering on Lampedusa in Sicily, where the great historical novel is set. This animal figures in the coat of arms of the Tomasi family.

Noi fummo i Gattopardi, i Leoni; quelli che ci sostituiranno saranno gli sciacalletti, le iene; e tutti quanti Gattopardi, sciacalli e pecore, continueremo a crederci il sale della terra.

We were the Leopards, the Lions; those who'll take our place will be little jackals, hyenas; and the whole lot of us, Leopards, jackals, and sheep, we'll all go on thinking ourselves the salt of the earth. 

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Don Fabrizio had always known that sensation. For a dozen years or so he had been feeling as if the vital fluid, the faculty of existing, life itself in fact and perhaps even the will to go on living, were ebbing out of him slowly but steadily, as grains of sand cluster and then line up one by one, unhurried, unceasing, before the narrow neck of an hourglass. In some moments of intense activity or concentration this sense of continual loss would vanish, to reappear impassively in brief instants of silence or introspection; just as a constant buzzing in the ears or the ticking of a pendulum superimposes itself when all else is silent, assuring us of always being there, watchful, even when we do not hear it.

-- Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa: Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), 1958

Night about to fall, shadows

stretching across

the hunting ground

of the serval.

In the long grass, the ears

as radar; the watching,

the listening

................and then

the swift burst

through the grass;

the pause;

the quiet springing.

 
Serval (Leptailurus serval) in Serengeti, Tanzania: photo by Budgiekiller, June 2007

 Serval (Leptailurus serval) at Mundawanga, Chilanga, Zambia: photo by Hans Hillewaert, 26 July 2010 

The Crater Floor, Ngorongoro Crater, Arusha, Tanzania: photo by Brandon Daniel, 17 June 2009

Serval (Leptailurus serval), Ngorongoro Crater, Arusha, Tanzania: photo by Brandon Daniel, 17 June 2009

Serval (Leptailurus serval) in Sabi Sands, South Africa. Note the large ears adapted for hearing small prey: photo by Lee R. Berger, 26 July 2007

Serval (Leptailurus serval), Sabi Sands, South Africa. Seen from behind. Note the white markings on the ears (ocelli) used to signal kittens while hunting: photo by Lee R. Berger, 26 July 2007

 
 Serval (Leptailurus serval) at Mundawanga, Chilanga, Zambia: photo by Hans Hillewaert, 26 July 2010

Serval (Leptailurus serval) at Serengeti National Park, Tanzania: photo by Bob Fabry, 11 February 2007

Serval (Leptailurus serval) in frost, Malawi: photo by Nick Jewel, 4 January 2009

A view of Mt. Kenya from the Ol Pejeta Conservancy: photo by Lengai101, June 2010

Lorenzo Thomas: The Leopard

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Adult female Leopard (Panthera pardus), Vumbura Plains, Botswana: photo by Steve Jurvetson, 1 July 2011

The eyeballs on her behind are like fire

Leaping and annoying

The space they just passed

Just like fire would do

The ground have no mouth to complain

And the girl is not braver herself

She is beautiful in her spotted

Leopard ensemble. Heartless so

To keep her fashionable in New York

Leopards are dying

Crude comments flutter around her

At lunchtime. She sure look good

She remembers nine banishing speeches

More powerful than this is the seam

Of the leotard under her clothing

Her tail in the leotard is never still

The seam!

She feels it too familiar on her leg

As some crumb says something suggestive

The leopard embracing around her

Is too chic to leap and strike

Her thoughts fall back to last semester’s karate

Underneath, the leotard crouches up on her thigh

It is waiting for its terrible moment!

Lorenzo Thomas: The Leopard, from Chances are Few (Blue Wind Press, 1979)

Female Leopard (Panthera pardus), hunting in the Sabi Sands, South Africa. Note the white spot on its tail, used for communicating with cubs while hunting or in long grass: photo by Lee Berger, July 2007

Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus), Botswana: photo by Michael Potts, 2 July 2011

Leopard (Panthera pardus) relaxing on a tree: photographer unknown, n.d.; image by Bogdan, 26 November 2008 (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) 

Young leopard (Panthera pardus) charging, Rhino and Lion Park, Gauteng, South Africa: photo by Rute Martins, 25 February 2010



Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus). Serengeti, Tanzania: photo by JanErkamp, 13 February 2007



Leopard (Panthera pardus) standing in a tree, central Serengeti: photo by Caelio, 29 September 2009
 

Leopard (Panthera pardus), Africa: photo by Rupert Taylor-Price, 16 September 2008

Leopard (Panthera pardus) in a tree: photo by David Berkowitz, 16 September 2008



Persian Leopard (Panthera pardus ciscaucasica), Iran: photo by Tamar Assaf, 2 January 2010

Susan Kay Anderson: The Telephone

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Time-lapse animation of a geranium flower opening: photo by Andrew Dunn, 31 July 2006; animation by Solipsist, 1 August 2006

Sometimes she calls us
when she’s drunk. Her voice
is golden syrup music. It never stumbles.
She doesn’t ask a lot of questions, then.
She has all the answers to our letters.
They unwind from her mouth like flowers
unfolding in special time-lapse Nature Shows.
Speeded up. Small monsters going to overtake
the earth. The title of one particular show
could be called “How Flowers Bloom.” In it,
she brushes her hair and the longer
she brushes it the curlier it ravels
and the closer it becomes to the time to hang up. 

Gilbert White: A Naturalist's Journal: One day in July

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A view from the back garden of Gilbert White's house, The Wakes, Selborne, Hampshire: photo by Ludi Ling, 26 August 2010

25 July, 1790

Lime trees are fragrant: the golden tassels are beautiful. Dr Chandler tells us that in the south of France, an infusion of the blossoms of the lime-tree, tilia, is in much esteem as a remedy for coughs, hoarseness, fevers, etc.; and that at Nismes he saw an avenue of limes that was quite ravaged and torn to pieces by people greedily gathering the bloom, which they dryed and kept for their purposes. Upon the strength of this information we made some tea of lime-blossoms, and found it a very soft, well-flavoured, pleasant, saccharine julep, in taste much resembling the juice of liquorice.

25 July, 1789

No garden-beans gathered yet.  Threw the hay in the meadows into large cocks.  The lime-trees with their golden tassels make a most beautiful show.  Hops throw out their side branches, which are to bear the fruit.  Cran-berries at bin pond not ripe.  Hog pease are hacking at Oakhanger.

25 July, 1786

Pease are hacked: rye is reaping: turnips thrive and are hoing.

25 July, 1785

Boys bring the sixth and seventh wasp’s nest.  My Nep. Edmd White sends me some fine wall-nuts for pickling.  The trees at Newton were not at all touched by the severity of last winter; while mine were so damaged that all the bearing twigs were destroyed.  My wall-nut trees have this summer pushed out shoots thro’ the old bark, several feet from the extremities of the boughs.  While the hen-fly-catcher sits, the cock feeds her all day long: he also pays attention to the former brood, which he feeds at times.

25 July, 1783

Trenched two more rows of celeri in the upper end of the plot by W. Dewey’s: the ground mellow.  We plant out the cabbage-kind some few at a time.  The boys bring me a large wasp’s nest full of maggots.

Some young martins came out of the nest over the garden-door.  This nest was built in 1777, and has been used ever since. As the summer has been dry, and we have drawn much water for the garden, I caused my well to be plumbed, and found we have yet 13 feet of water.  When we were measuring I was desirious of trying the depth of Bentham’s well, which becomes dry every summer; and was surprized to find it 25 feet shallower than my own: the former being only 38 feet deep, and the latter 63.

25 July, 1781

The crop on my largest Apricot-tree is still prodigious, tho’ in May I pulled off 30, or 40 dozen.

25 July, 1779

Puff-balls come up in my grass-plot, and walks: they came from the common in the turf.  There are many fairy-rings in my walks, in these the puff-balls thrive best.  The fairy-rings alter and vary in their shape.

25 July, 1778

The water shines in the fallows.  Much damage done about London by lightening on July 20.

25 July, 1776 

Bees that have not swarmed kill their drones.

25 July, 1774 

Grapes very small and backward for want of sun.  qu: if they will ripen.

*They did in Octr.

25 July, 1773 

Some hops much infested with aphides.

25 July, 1772

 

Wheat turns yellowish.  Mercury falls very fast.

25 July, 1768 

Cut the first cantelupe-melon.

Gilbert White (1720-1793): from Naturalist's Journal (entries for 25 July, 1768-1790) in Journals, edited by Walter Johnson, 1931

Hot Beds used by Gilbert White. Gilbert White successfully grew melons in these hotbeds. A pit is dug and filled with fresh horse manure, on top of which is a foot or so of good loamy soil. The manure ferments and produces a high temperature which aids the germination of the seeds. If required, glass can also be placed across the frame: photo by Dr Neil Clifton, 2 September 2007

Selborne, Hampshire: The Wakes, home of the famous naturalist and gardener Gilbert White: photo by Dr Neil Clifton, 2 September 2007

Gilbert White's garden, Selborne, Hampshire. Gilbert White was not a rich man and could not afford statues to decorate his garden. Instead he used wooden boards painted to resemble statues at the end of sight lines as here through the field gates: photo by Dr Neil Clifton, 2 September 2007

Young Orchard. At Sotherington Farm near Selbone: photo by John Phillips, 1 May 2006

Mind the Nettles: photo by John Phillips, 1 May 2006

Snap of Snap Wood: photo by John Phillips, 1 May 2006

Pond near Selborne: photo by Mike Parsons, 11 July 2006

Temple Wood near Selborne: photo by John Phillips, 1 May 2006

The water below Outshott hangar. Stagnant in places. We saw a owl fly off in between the trees as we walked back: photo by Andrya Prescott: 3 June 2006

Noar Hill Wildlife Reserve: photo by Bob Ford, 15 May 2005

 

Noar Hill near Selborne: photo by John Phillips, 1 May 2006

Noar Hill from the Hangers' Way path on the south side of Selborne Hill: photo by Keith Rose, 8 June 2004

Looking south from Noar Hill. The ploughed field forms the plateau-like summit of Noar Hill. Almost surrounding the field is a glorious wildlife reserve: photo by Hugh Chevallier, 8 October 2006

Hawkley Hanger, from footpath at Vann Farm, Empshott. On Hangers Way: photo by Keith Rose, 6 May 2006

Road by Vann Farm, Empshott. On Hangers Way: photo by Keith Rose, 6 May 2006

Hangers near Empshott. Another section of the boundary between the hangers and open farmland: photo by Graham Horn, 4 March 2007

Footpath towards Empshott. Take your pick of which bit of mud you wish to use: photo by Graham Horn, 4 March 2007

Byway through the Woods. Taken on the byway to Selborne Priory through the woods east of Selborne: photo by Ron Strutt, 23 March 2003

 Looking Down the Zig-Zag Walk, Selborne Hanger. This is the area where Rev. Gilbert White researched and wrote his celebrated "Natural History of Selborne". At the age of 23, in 1743, White helped his brother John to clear and construct this path: photo by Colin Smith, November 2002

for Karen and Duncan Jones