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| The song you hear playing now, Follow Me, is bittersweet for me to listen to. First of all, it was a John Denver piece.
Secondly, it reminds me of when I trained Griz to the leash and halter. It took about 20 minutes. At first, all I had to do was say, "Stay with me" a few times and after that she always stayed right with me. She never pulled on the leash or misbehaved in any other way. It is one of my favorite memories of the good times we had together. |
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| Griz wearing her harness |
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| FIRSTBORN Frederick William Elwell British Artist |
| Fred Elwell was born in Beverley, the youngest of six children. His father, James Elwell, was a cabinet maker and wood carver, who was twice mayor of Beverley. Fred studied art from the age of 15, at Lincoln, in Holland and in Paris. In 1914, he married Mary Dawson Holmes, also a talented artist. They lived together at Bar House, Beverley, for many years. Mary's secure financial position allowed Fred to travel abroad and paint continental landscapes. However, he is best known for his portraits of local people. He regularly exhibited in London, including at the Royal Academy, but remained very much a Beverley artist. In all, he produced more than 500 paintings and continued to work until very shortly before his death.
Elwell frequently used local people as models to suggest an ideal or type; here, in a romanticized picture of married life, the 'ideal' mother, doting father and 'perfect' baby. The 'first born' of the picture was one week old Muriel Thompson (now Holtby), the daughter of a Beverley police constable. The mother was a Mrs. Utteridge and the figure of the father a Mr. Constable, who tragically died before Elwell had painted the father's loving gaze. |
 ONE HUNDRED FAMOUS VIEWS OF EDO (TOKYO) NUMBER EIGHTY-SEVEN |
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| Benten Shrine, Inokashira Pond (Inokashiranoike Benten no yashiro) |
| We have moved eight miles west of Naito Shinjuku, taking us far out of the city into the center of the Musashi Plain. This is the most distant site depicted in the entire One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, yet it was a place of intimate meaning for the city as the earliest source of its regular water supply.
Drawing on the spring-fed waters of Inokashira Pond, the Kanda Aqueduct was constructed at the beginning of the Tokugawa period, and until the completion of the Tama River Aqueduct in 1654, it served as Edo's primary source of fresh water. |
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'Ang mo tau eu' is an essential accompaniment for certain Malaysian dishes such as Inchee Kabin (Malaysian Spiced Fried Chicken). 'Ang mo tau eu' made its way to Malaysia by way of the British, who adopted it in England in the 1830's from India.
What is 'Ang mo tau eu'?
• a) Curry • b) Chutney • c) Worcestershire • d) Mustard • e) Mangoes PASS YOUR MOUSE OVER THE QUESTION MARKS FOR THE ANSWER! |
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| GREATER SCAUP |
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 |  THAT I HAVE NOT READ ... BUT WOULD LIKE TO |
 | Fingerbone is a fictional town in the Pacific Northwest. It rests along a lake that has the distinction of once having claimed an entire train that slid from a bridge into its dark waters one night, taking almost all on board to their deaths. Time swallows people in the same way in this sly book. The narrator is Ruth, a teenaged girl. She and her sister are raised, affectionately but haphazardly, by various generations of the women in her all-too-eccentric family. This is a book about women, making homes and leaving them. Even when the girls stay home, the days and nights pass and the plot goes nowhere in particular, Robinson arrives again and again in resounding places. |
| Robinson (née Summers) was born and grew up in Sandpoint, Idaho, and did her undergraduate work at Pembroke College, the former women's college at Brown University, receiving her B.A., magna cum laude in 1966, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
She received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington in 1977. Robinson has written three highly acclaimed novels: Housekeeping (1980), Gilead (2004) and Home (2008). Housekeeping was a finalist for the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (US), Gilead was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer, and Home received the 2009 Orange Prize for Fiction (UK). Home is a companion to Gilead and focuses on the Boughton family during the same time period. |  |
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| KOI CARP |
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| ROADRUNNER |
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| MAINE | |
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| The state coat of arms is placed on a blue field. In the center of the shield a moose rests under a tall pine tree. A farmer and seaman represents the work that people did in early times. The North Star represents the state motto: "Dirigo" ("I Direct"). Flag adopted 1909. | |
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| The Jackdaw (Coloeus monedula), sometimes known as the Eurasian Jackdaw, European Jackdaw or Western Jackdaw, is a passerine bird in the crow family. Found across Europe, western Asia and North Africa, it is mostly sedentary, although northern and eastern populations migrate south in winter. |
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| Four subspecies are recognized. It was originally described as Corvus monedula by Linnaeus, but analysis of its DNA shows it and its closest relative the Daurian Jackdaw to be early offshoots from the genus Corvus, and distinct enough to warrant reclassification in a separate genus Coloeus. |
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| Two Jackdaws in a hole in a wall at Conwy Castle, Clwyd, Wales. |
| Measuring 34–39 centimetres (13–15 inches) in length, the Jackdaw is a black-plumaged bird with a grey nape and distinctive white irises. It is an omnivorous and opportunistic feeder, and eats a wide variety of plant material and invertebrates, as well as food waste from urban areas. The Jackdaw has benefited from clearing of forested areas and is found in farmland and urban areas, as well as open wooded areas and coastal cliffs. |
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| Jackdaws usually breed in colonies with monogamous pairs collaborating to locate a nest site which they then defend from other pairs and predators most of the year. They nest in cavities of trees, cliffs or ruined, and sometimes inhabited, buildings, often in chimneys, or even disused rabbit burrows. The common feature of all is a sheltered site for the nest. The availability of suitable sites influences their presence in a locale. |
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Various plants of genus Cassia, with showy, nearly regular, usually yellow flowers. Many are used medicinally, and seeds of some species are used as coffee substitute in various parts of the world. They have a tea-like aroma and antibacterial effects. This plant is:
• a) Cinnamon • b) Senna • c) Ceylon Tea • d) Sedum • e) Khaki PASS YOUR MOUSE OVER THE QUESTION MARKS FOR THE ANSWER! |
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| ENGLISH ROBIN |
