The return of the catbird

[pameladean]

A week or so ago, I was out with Ari, and heard a house finch singing in one of the mulberry trees that line the northern edge of our back yard. By the time I had coaxed the cat in that direction, the song was a robin's. I never did see the bird itself, only the leaves fluttering here and there, but I did hear the finch, robin, and cardinal songs all break off with a vigorous mewing squawk, and then resume again. A few days ago, I heard the same thing in the mulberry sapling on the south side of the house. I am awaiting the two a.m. concert.

It has become summer. The mock orange and spirea are blooming; the lilac is almost past. After the cold spring, my peonies are cautiously opening their buds. When I sniffed one open flower, I got an ant up my nose. The daisies are blooming in the lawn. The dame's rocket is at full throttle, and fills the air with perfume at twilight. There are, inevitably, mosquitoes. The lawn wants mowing. The phlox has spread really tenaciously in the bed I put it into five or six years ago, and is actually giving the hairy bellflower a bit of a problem. On the whole, I don't have a garden; I have a hairy bellflower encampment punctuated with daylilies (presently putting up their flower stalks) and semi-wild rosebushes.

The Henry Kelsey lost a lot of canes last winter. But after Monday's appalling heat and humidity, a big piece of it that's still trained over the arch burst into bloom. The white rose of York is also blooming, and is thick with buds.

I haven't managed to put in any vegetables.

Also, I've apparently been complaining too much about my novel, because now I get to abandon it for a few days and write a short essay to appear on the inside back cover of the reprint of Tam Lin. On the whole, the novel is preferable.

P.

Comments

[chaoticgoodnik.livejournal.com]

I empathize with the pain of essay-writing, but I'm so glad Tam Lin will be reprinted. My poor paperback copy is in pieces. :)

[pameladean]

I'm glad too. It's a small enough amount of work to do. I just don't do well on a TEENY TINY canvas.

P.

[kristenj.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to hear that Tam Lin is being reprinted! One of my best-loved books. This is the book I gave to my sister who doesn't "do" fantasy, and she loved it! It probably helped that she was an English major in college, though.

Our lawn also needs mowing, and trimming.

[pameladean]

Some English majors just hate the book, but on the whole that's the way to bet, that being one can only help.

All my neighbors were out mowing yesterday. I went for a walk. Today it rained. Hahaha, my wildflowers shall remain unmolested.

P.

[sdn.livejournal.com]

yes, but TAM LIN comes out first.

signed, yr. editor

[pameladean]

And whose fault is THAT?

P.

Birds, birds, birds

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

It's always good to hear from you. I'm consistently impressed by the people who can tell the song of one bird apart from another. (Louie can do this with some consistency; I can't.) I do note that when I dropped out of Scribblies, one of the things I stopped doing (for no justifiable reason) was reading my friends' novels. It seems quite obvious that *Tam Lin* would be a great place to start ricocheting back. (I don't know where my copy presently is, but buying a second one would not be all that stupid.)

Nate

Re: Birds, birds, birds

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

Birds! Birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds, birds!

Re: Birds, birds, birds

[pameladean]

Nate -- the best way to fix bird songs in one's head is to actually see the bird singing. Whether it's worth your while to go about craning your neck and trying to find the source of that whistle, I don't know.

P.

[medievalist.livejournal.com]

I'm delighted to hear Tam Lin is being reprinted--it's enormous fun to teach, and I think the next time, I'll teach it along with some of the books Janet et al mention and allude to.

And to think they pay us to do this stuff . . .

[pameladean]

It still just makes my day to see that somebody is teaching that novel. Whee!

P.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

YaY!

Unfortunately, I bought and tried to read the juvenile trilogy the week my brother died, and it's become guilty by association. I look forward to the reprinting of Tam Lin with keen anticipation.

My peony is looking very healthy albeit deformed. I will be posting Phenology Pix later this afternoon.

[pameladean]

Oh, OW, I should think you'd never want to see those books again. It's hard to know what to do in such circumstances. I tend to take a book that I've been reading for twenty or thirty years, so that there are too many other associations for any one to take over. But there's always a risk that one is wrong about that,too.

I thought your peony looked pretty spry.

P.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Well, I had time to kill at the train station waiting to go up to see my brother, and I was in the B. Dalton at the attached mall, and on a whim I checked for something of yours. Who knew he would die that very week? Surely not me.

I'm having trouble picking up where I left off on the guitar, too -- a serious disinclination to exert myself where it's not needed, except for plants.

I hope you're right about the peony.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

It's so good to see you and your garden.

[pameladean]

I've loved all your photos, especially the ones with the Special Camera of Doom.

P.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

P.S. I'm delighted to hear about Tam Lin. I'm getting it as soon as it comes out!

[pameladean]

I ought to remember when that is, but I don't.

P.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

That's okay, Pamela. I'll watch for it! I bought the first Hidden Hills at Barnes & Noble.

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

I need a new copy. These paperbacks just don't hold up the way they used to-- that's 2 of them I've read into the ground and 1 hardback.

Hoorah for the reprint of Tam Lin!

And hoorah for the catbird!

(MRRRRROWWWK! I'm a catbird!)

[pameladean]

I thought you'd like to hear about the catbird.

There are two of them, so I hope for fledglings.

P.

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

Do fledgelings sound the same as the fully fledged catbirds, only at 2 am instead of 6?

[pameladean]

*giggle*

No, they sound like most other fledglings, either making soft cheeps or else emitting a high-pitched shriek that makes even a mammal want to stuff mulberries down their little maws.

P.

[omaha.livejournal.com]

...reprint of Tam Lin...

what a perfect excuse for me to do a site update!

[pameladean]

Yes indeed.

I just did a TV interview for local cable, and the interviewer mentioned your site!

P.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

They have it in the library at Carleton. That's so beautifully recursive.

I can imagine Tam Lin inspiring people to go to college for generations.

I now want to write an essay about it from the viewpoint of 2085 explaining the amazing effects it has had on the nation's youth and arguing fiercely against forcing young people to read it. (I think this lack of working puter bit is making me slightly mad.)

[pameladean]

I really wanted to go to college for generations, but nobody would put up the financial aid.

While I am sure that the lack of a working puter is making you slightly mad -- how could it not? -- I can't say that your wanting to write that essay seems much like evidence of it to me.

No doubt I am biased.

P.

[diony.livejournal.com]

I can definitely attest that having read Tam Lin at 16 had much to do with why at almost-30 I'm still attempting to be an English major.

Pinging Pamela

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Can you identify the seedling tree in the picture here?

http://www.livejournal.com/users/lblanchard/117350.html#cutid1

Re: Pinging Pamela

[pameladean]

Not yet. At first glance it looks like a kind of huge flowering shrub that we have hereabouts, but first leaves are not always typical. I'll put up an entry if I manage to figure it out.

P.

[thinkum]

Yay for reprints! ;-)

[pameladean]

Yay for Firebird! Yay for sdn!

P.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Just read your Tam Lin and loved it. Only unfortunately that was after I'd tried writing my own short story based on same ballad. Sigh. I don't hold up in the comparison, of course. But would like so much to friend you, if I may. And go on to your other works, too.

[pameladean]

Sure, feel free. And welcome to the crowd; there are dozens and dozens of adaptations of the ballad.

As for my other stuff, there's a bibliography on my website:

http://www.dd-b.net/pddb/

P.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank god; my copy of Tam Lin is being held together with clear packaging tape, and I haven't been able to find another. This time I'll get about three copies right off the bat, and plan ahead for my reading them to pieces.

Not too sympathetic, are we? *wry gryn*