Ennui Tuesday

Phew!  After storming the barricades with the Monday Manifesto, I'm just a touch tuckered out today. Or maybe it was that staying up past midnight to clear my e-mail inbox. 

Perishing penguins!  It's -33.8°C at 75 Degrees South .  Scope the amazing Aurora Australis pictures.  It seems it's not all darkness in the long polar night.  Last week I heard from 75 Degrees author Simon, who is reading The Worst Journey in the World.  I try to imagine how perfectly thrilling it would be to read the it while you're right there with the howling winds and blowing snow.  Last week, I read Swimming to Antarctica; now there's a book makes a person feel a right slacker. Swam the English Channel and beat the records (men's and women's) at age 15 and 16.  Sort of her warmup routine for subsequent dips off some of the world's shorelines least likely to attract a bikini crowd: the Bering Strait, the Strait of Magellan, The Cape of Good Hope. the Cook Strait.  I think I need some hot cocoa.

What I'm reading now: The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World.  Thus far, I have learned interesting things about the apple tree.  Did you know that each seed from each apple that falls from an apple tree is genetically unique both from the parent tree and from all the other seeds from that tree?  Boggles the mind.

Comments

[Trix]

I loooooved Botany of Desire! It says volumes about evolution on a not-so-voluminous scale, which suited my brain just fine. It also made me re-think the way I view 'conservation' and 'preservation' in the natural world.