In other news: the perfection of the solar cycle.

at Harbor Light

View of Fort Griswold (Groton,CT) from Fort Trumbull (New London,CT) across the Thames River. Ft Griswold was captured by British forces under Benedict Arnold during the Battle of Groton Heights 9/1781. Both sides experienced extensive losses and many homes and other buildings were destroyed.

A few towns in CT have their own electric utilities (distribution): Groton, Norwich, Norwalk, Wallingford, and Bozrah &Jewett City. They invariably do better in terms of power outages, and typically have lower rates too

“For those tense hours, though, no one on either side knew exactly what would happen.”

“On the other hand, some birds are thriving in Connecticut. According to Huang, 29% of bird species are increasing in the state. “Some of that is due to climate change and warming weather. Black vultures, a species that typically breeds in the South, are now nesting in Connecticut.”

#titmouse family enjoying some food in the snow. ❄️🤍 #birds #Connecticut #wildlife #snow #birdfeeder #eastcoastkin #winter #family

Saw some cool birds just walking around Lima, including this Vermillion Flycatcher that was using electrical wires for its perch! ❤️🖤❤️ #Flycatcher #Lima #Peru

“Birders in the state have a new website to flock to: the updated Connecticut Bird Atlas. The website documents which birds are living in Connecticut and where, including wintering birds.”

Saw some Common Mergansers today on Chris Greene Lake. 🦉 #birds

The Twelfth-cake has hidden charms. The Drury Lane Theatre in London has provided such a cake since 1795. Robert Baddeley left a bequest of £100 to provide cake to the resident company every 6 Jan. Baddeley was a pastry chef&became an actor specializing in comedy.

The Sixth is hands down the best documentary I've seen about what happened 5 years ago in Washington, DC, on January 6th. It's thoughtful, measured, and very well-crafted. Highly recommended! Streaming on Prime Video & Apple TV. #NeverForgetJan6 #NeverForgetJan6th

Trump regime pals made a killing today. US Oil stocks at the close: 🟢 Valero +9.2% 🟢 Halliburton +7.9% 🟢 Phillips 66 +7.2% 🟢 Marathon +5.9% 🟢 Chevron +5.1% 🟢 ConocoPhillips +2.6% 🟢 ExxonMobil +2.2%

“As with the metempsychosis of souls from body to body, this copy made its way across libraries and collections until it was purchased for the equivalent of seventy cents in 1970 by a 22-year-old Umberto Eco…” 2/2 (!)

"The good of a book lies in its being read. A book is made up of signs that speak of other signs, which in their turn speak of things. Without an eye to read them, a book contains signs that produce no concepts; therefore it is dumb." Umberto Eco, born on this day in 1932

Year of the Horse.

“And heaved and heaved, still unrestingly heaved the black sea, as if its vast tides were a conscience” Moby-Dick, 51 #MelvilleMonday

the Dover Quartet at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia today a very enjoyable performance

Further to that last post of mine - in case you were wondering what an Australasian swamphen looks like (formerly known as the purple swamphen - for obvious reasons), here's one I photographed at Mount Gambier in 2022. This one exuded attitude 😆 The are beautiful birds.

“One of those copies of Poetics, frayed and damaged until it was barely readable, though still bearing the distinctive watermark of the Aldine Press featuring a dolphin wrapped around an anchor, eventually made its way to a Bologna bookstall.” 1/2

Ahoy, Shipmates & Friends! Happy #MelvilleMonday ! Cruising to Cozumel 📷 by Beth

🌊 #hundenasenmontag

Literary Hub » Nothing Better Than a Whole Lot of Books: In Praise of Bibliomania lithub.com/nothing-bett...

“we encounter a gale by the following morning, the wind in a great measure had gone down; the sea with it; and by noon we had repaired our damages as well as we could, and were sailing along as pleasantly as ever.” Chapter xvi, Omoo #MelvilleMonday #naturesky #naturephotography #winter #snowsky ❄️🐋

“A difficult, linguistically-innovative fever dream of a novel, which has been hailed as America's greatest contribution to world literature.” #MelvilleMonday Source: www.burnsiderarebooks.com/pages/books/...

Katrin Korfmann is a German photographer. Her work uses elevated viewpoints to show people in motion, turning urban scenes into images with distinctive visual patterns.

“Sonalysts Inc., Waterford, Connecticut, has been awarded a $10,067,623 modification (P00149) to previously awarded contract FA8806-19-C-0002… “System Delta 81, Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado, is the contracting activity.”

Happy #MelvilleMonday 🐳 „The anchor being secured, a steam tug-boat with a strong name, the Hercules, took hold of us; and away we went past the long line of shipping, and wharves, and warehouses; and rounded the green south point of the island where the Battery is, and passed Governor's Island, 1+

Barns, 1926, A.Y. Jackson

Snow Cover Watercolour on paper Ray Hendershot (1931 - 2019)

Time and patience.

Out on the roads the pilgrims sank down and fell over and died and the bleak and shrouded earth went trundling past the sun and returned again as trackless and as unremarked as the path of any nameless sisterworld in the ancient dark beyond. #SundaySentence Cormac McCarthy / The Road

‘“If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone."’ Epictetus #SundaySentence

I love this one :)

... a fiction is not a web of lies, with the truth, still squirming and alive, at its center; in a fiction, truth and lies are spun together, inseparable, in the same slender thread of silk. What the web catches is a matter of chance. Disclaimer from The Amnesiac by Sam Taylor #sundaysentence

“There’s a lot to learn about our sleek new neighbors, which is why we’re so happy to bring in Seals and Society, a traveling exhibition from the New Bedford Whaling Museum. It will be on view at the Custom House Jan. 17—March 22, 2026.”

"Those who write clearly have readers." Albert Camus

Update from 11 hours into the Moby Dick marathon: The “quiet room” is starting to fill up with people bedding down for the night. Real “night at the museum” vibes. The out-loud reading presses on in the museum auditorium downstairs, readers taking turns.

We are 16 hours into the Moby Dick reading marathon. It’s 4:44am and the coffee station ran out of cups. 😬 The read aloud session in the auditorium is piped in from a speaker.

“This plant senses sound, even though it doesn’t have any ears.” Francis Hallé #SundaySentence

via @mitpress.bsky.social

Clément Gaillard, PhD: Trans. from French Francis has passed away… I was saddened to learn of the passing of the great botanist Francis Hallé at the age of 87. His departure will unfortunately not make the headlines of the newspapers, which is why I wanted to pay tribute to him with this thread.

In progress.

Bluebird convention 🪶

Big Ash Tree on a hill for today's #JanuArty prompt #Tree. I always think of it as my Yggdrasil from Norse legends. The pony's great for scale (he often stood there), not sure he's Odin's creature. Not a stallion nor does he have 8 legs. #Photography #Landscape #EastCoastKin #ColorADay #GreenSat

Nature’s Acre is my Irish gardening memoir: wildlife, neighbours, and recovery with soil under fingernails. Grab it: Ebook mybook.to/wFA3fQ1 Paperback mybook.to/3MZxFf