10 Things: Magic, Secrets, Gardens
All my recommendations for what to watch, listen to, read, follow, ponder, and explore this week
I took the week off last week to listen to birds. Mostly listening to birds, because my two-and-a-half-year-old likes to run around near the birds, making it hard to stop and look for them. On the plus side, really falling in love with how birds sound has been a particular gift this year.
Here are ten things I’m digging right now. The first three, as ever, are free! Seven more below the paywall.
I can’t stop watching and cackling at videos of actor Nicole Daniels doing Nonprofit Leader Character. She has tons of them. She is generally snacking on sunflowers seeds and orange slices, if that’s a trigger (it is for me and also these videos can’t exist without the snacking and I LIVE FOR IT). I keep trying to type the things that she says so you’ll get a taste, but you just have to watch (right?).
CELEBRATE: Bees.
I am one of those Women Writers who LOVES BEES. We picked up our bees a few weeks ago, and I drove down the highway in my Subaru filled with bees feeling like I was heralding a godly chariot. Our bees are doing great this year, and I’m thrilled. All I wanted for Mother’s Day was to take picture of the bees, and I got my wish (see above). I am not the mother of the bees, BUT THE ULTIMATE MOTHERS OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM LIVE IN THOSE HIVES!!!!
There is good news for bees this year, per WaPo:
After almost two decades of relentless colony collapse coverage and years of grieving suspiciously clean windshields, we were stunned to run the numbers on the new Census of Agriculture (otherwise known as that wonderful time every five years where the government counts all the llamas): America’s honeybee population has rocketed to an all-time high.
Also, allow to recommend a fabulous new photo book that uses special cameras to show what it’s like to move through the world as a bee. You’ll see pictures like this one, from The New York Times:
There are about 20,000 known species of bees worldwide. They’re all pollinators, which means they spend basically all day gardening for you. Most bees aren’t aggressive, and won’t sting you unless you provoke them. (This is not true of wasps, so do yourself a favor and learn the difference!) Bees have been flying into my house, and I’ve been able to catch them in my hands and safely let them go out the window. (This requires a specific type of gentleness, but it’s imminently possible for the everyman.)
My friend (and fellow Taurus) Brendan told me that “Magic for Beginners” was his favorite short story. When he told me this, I wasn’t quite in my right mind, and so I forget the context, but he not only told me, he loaned me his valuable, numbered edition of the so-titled story collection so I could read it. It really is breathtaking, filled with mysteries and the kinds of details you wish you’d made up yourself, but you couldn’t hope to be so clever. This is the kind of sci-fi I think everyone can get behind. In 2005, when this book came out, I had just graduated high school, and I didn’t know to be interested in anything cool, so I’m glad it’s possible to go back in time and enjoy this kind of chocolate candy filled with gold coins. Good news, too: the title short story is linked on Kelly Link’s website, so you can read it before you get the whole collection at the library.
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