My sister Pam lived and taught in northern Spain for several years. In 1992, I spent part of the summer with her. We did a lot of exploring, including Somiedo, the second least densely populated municipality in Asturias. Somiedo has beautiful countryside and lots of trails.
Pam, her roommate Alicia, and I hiked in to a view point. We sat admiring the view. A heavy paw suddenly landed on my right shoulder….
I turned and looked into the face of a huge dog. He was powerfully strong and wore an iron collar covered all over with heavy metal spikes. They were to protect him if wolves attacked the sheep he guarded.
The dog sat by my side as if we were old acquaintances.
His master, the shepherd, was probably in his 50s. We talked for a while; he pointed out his large flock of sheep, down the hillside. He was moving the flock to the next valley.
He whistled for his companion and they headed towards the sheep. I reluctantly said goodbye to the gentle dog. We had bonded and I was seriously in love. In an impossibly short amount of time they covered the distance back down to the sheep. We watched as he, the dog, and their charges vanished into the hillside.
I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. Recent awards include Finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award for The Taste of Your Name and Finalist for Greece’s Eyelands 11th International Short Story Contest.
Here for your reading amusement is installment #8 from my blog thread describing what to call groups of animals. Thanks to rollbacks on environmental protections, more and more will die out. See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
The roll rolled up tight.
The flight took flight.
You don’t want this wake at a wake.
We spotted three stands standing on the beach.
The parliament looked parliamentary and regal indeed.
The risk risks being turned into dinner.
Parliament, Madeira
Answers:
Roll of armadillos [1]
Flight of butterflies [2]
Wake of buzzards
Stand of plovers (on land)
Parliament of owls [3]
Risk of lobster [4]
Flight, back trails Cranberry Lake, Adirondacks USA
I’m beyond dismayed – I am furious. The Trump administration is gutting environmental protections. Take action. Volunteer. Speak up! Write letters, make phone calls, donate to organizations like the Environmental Defense Fund and Greenpeace.
I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. Recent awards include Finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award for The Taste of Your Name and Finalist for Greece’s Eyelands 11th International Short Story Contest.
Ah, the Maribou Stork. This bird is one of the infamous Ugly 5.
Dining out is the best! Nothing beats a well-aged steak. Chobe National Park, Botswana
This bird is a real stinker. Literally. A Maribou stork eats whatever’s lying around and was killed or died a reaaaallly long time ago. The first time we met this stork was in Botswana. We drove past the remains of a very, very dead water buffalo that we smelled long before we reached it. As we drove by, a head suddenly popped up. We’d interrupted a stork enjoying its supper.
In January in Arusha Park, Tanzania, we had the unnerving experience of seeing a flock of these storks flying overhead. The Maribou is huge, and it’s strange.
Maribou Stork Tanzania 2026Looks prehistoric, doesn’t it? TanzaniaSeveral flying at the same time really fill the sky. Tanzania
Maribou aren’t picky eaters. They’ll dine on termites and small birds, garbage, and the carcasses of animals, including elephants. Other storks are elegant, but not this one. A Maribou can weigh as much as 7kg, grow to 1.52m, almost 5′ tall, and an 8’8″ wingspan – 2.7 meters! When one flies by, you definitely notice.
I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. Recent awards include Finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award for The Taste of Your Name and Finalist for Greece’s Eyelands 11th International Short Story Contest.
Writer Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. One of the first books I ever read by him remains my favorite: A Moveable Feast, Hemingway’s memoir of his early years in Paris from 1921–26. In his honor I am reprinting a post I wrote in 2015 about the magic that is Paris. – Jadi
As someone who believes in freedom of thought and speech, I was horrified by the 2015 attacks in Paris. I’m only a few train hours away and visit there gladly. The murders were way too close to where I live, on every single literal and metaphoric level you care to mention.
Uwe and I spent our honeymoon here. We visited eight museums in three days with our city pass and rewarded ourselves with great meals every evening. My husband has business trips to Paris, and sometimes I meet him before or afterwards. On the last trip we dined in a small restaurant where I ordered a meal that came with french fries. One bite, and I knew I was tasting something I’d read about but never had the pleasure of trying: potatoes fried in duck fat. They were sublime.
On another trip the Metro was on strike. We decided not to wait on the platform for a crowded city train. Instead, we went to a bistro with tables so tiny and close together that Uwe and I bumped knees under ours. A portly man sat at the next table with a salad that included slices of pear and fois gras on toast points. Beside his plate was a half carafe of house wine and a carafe of water. An entire fish baked on fennel halves arrived. He expertly dissected the fish and ordered more wine.
My salade nicoise was salty with anchovies. I watched waiters make their way through the packed bistro, food trays held above their heads. The patrons were businessmen and women, students, and families with small children. Not a seat was free. When we left, my neighbor had a platter of cheeses in front of him and showed no signs of slowing eating. I was sorry we had to leave before he got dessert.
My friend Shaun met me for a week one year. We washed lettuce in the bathroom sink of our obnoxiously small apartment. Warning to future travelers to Paris, triple check when a holiday rental promises it has a real working kitchen! This kitchen was two burners in a closet. [1] But we sat on a park bench and shared a cheese crepe we’d bought from a vendor on the street. She introduced me to (and got me hooked on) vibrant, dry Sancerres. And we ordered steak and pommes frites from the menu written on a little chalk board in a café with red checked table cloths and candles in wine bottles. We found that place by walking a block past the tourist spots.
Once I traveled to Paris with my sisters and our friend Chris. Paris with three artists is daunting. We went to one museum per day and I’d watch as all three of them sketched madly in concentration. Then we’d go shopping for ingredients to cook that night. A moveable feast indeed.
If Bangkok is the most sexual city I’ve ever been to, Paris is the most sensual. A simple omelette is a marvel, with beaten eggs of impossibly silky texture. Pastries nestle in windows. Each bakery, patisserie, café and place to eat calls out “Come here, mon petit!”
I bet whatever they were cooking was delicious
And, like any wise lover of food, I go. Je mange Paris.
In memory of Ernest Miller Hemingway, July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961
I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My award-listed books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. My most recent book, The Taste of Your Name, was a finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award.
Here is the 18th installment from my blog thread describing what to call groups of animals. More and more are endangered. See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
This Cambodian army member should have never left the army.
Nigh I saw the nye, they had vanished.
The ambush didn’t ambush anything. [1]
He put the purse in her purse.
The leap leaps down.
The conspiracy conspires to escape.
Answers:
Army deserter captured by member of another army, Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Army of frogs and monkeys [1]
Nye of pheasants (on the ground) [2]
Ambush of tigers [3]
Purse of sand dollars
Leap or leege of leopards [4]
Conspiracy of lemurs [5]
Look closely. Leap member in background, Kanha Tiger Reserve, India
I’m beyond dismayed – I am furious. The Trump administration gutted environmental protections. Take action. Volunteer. Speak up! Write letters, make phone calls, donate to organizations like the Environmental Defense Fund and Greenpeace.
Ambush, Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua Yanasampanno, Thailand
I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. Recent awards include Finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award for The Taste of Your Name and Finalist for Greece’s Eyelands 11th International Short Story Contest.
The goal of everyone who goes on safari is to spot The Big 5: lion, elephant, leopard, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo. It took us 3 tries to see them all, but in January this year we finally did it!
You talkin’ to me? Etosha National Park, Namibia
Less famous (or looked-for) are The Ugly 5. The 5 are known for weird body builds and dull coloration, on a continent where each animal is more striking than the next. I give you #2:
Keeping their distance from everybody else. Etosha National Park, Namibia
The Wildebeest. It’s not only one of Africa’s Ugly 5: the wildebeest, along with the zebra, takes part in the largest migration in the world. In January we watched from a jeep as 1.5 million animals made the winter trek in Serengeti National Park.
the Great Migration at Serengeti Park, Tanzaniawildebeest and zebras migrate togethermaking a dash for itwildebeest as far as the eye can see
Like the hyena (who we met as Ugly #1), the blue wildebeest has short hind legs and longer front legs (for endurance) and wide forequarters (greater lung capacity). The wildebeest has a strangely flat face, both sexes grow horns, and their coloring is a dark grey, blueish sheen. I’ve heard them called the ‘spare parts critter’: the horns of a juvenile buffalo, the tail of a horse, the beard of a goat, and a sloped, hyena-like back. Definitely a strange looking dude!
I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. Recent awards include Finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award for The Taste of Your Name and Finalist for Greece’s Eyelands 11th International Short Story Contest.
One of the most spectacular sights I’ve ever witnessed is what’s known as the Great Migration. One and a half million wildbeests and zebras are all traveling at the same time. The animals make a huge loop from Kenya down to Tanzania and back again, following the weather patterns for water and grasses. The best times to see the Great Migration is in the summer when it’s raining and massive herds have to ford raging rivers.
Serengeti Plain. I love this picture. I think this is one of the best photos Uwe’s ever taken.
The other best time to go is in the winter during the dry season and see the herds with their babies. Uwe and I went in January for ten days of safaris on the Serengeti Plain and the surrounding national parks.
Tanzania 2026
Look at this photo! Those are animals as far back as you can see.
Tanzania 2026This little zebra’s stripes will darken as it agesone hell of a lot of gnus
The Serengeti National Park is beautiful, a stunning and stunningly impressive nature reserve. I would have been blown away by the opportunity to see it without all the animals. Getting to watch from the middle of the largest migration on the planet was unbelievable.
I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. Recent awards include Finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award for The Taste of Your Name and Finalist for Greece’s Eyelands 11th International Short Story Contest.
Rosalind: I will laugh like a hyen, and that when thou art inclined to sleep.” As You Like It, IV. i. 147-9. – William Shakespeare
The goal of everyone who goes on safari is to spot The Big 5: lion, elephant, leopard, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo. It took us 3 tries to see them all, but in January this year we finally did it!
Less famous (or looked-for) are The Ugly 5. Uwe and I have spotted every single one over time. And yes, they are UGLY. It is my great pleasure to introduce you to them, one at a time….
First up is the spotted hyena. They like grasslands and open terrain. From our tent in the Serengeti, in the middle of the night I heard them laughing hysterically. The spotted hyena is chatty!
Tanzania 2026a mud bath. Because he’s not filthy enough yetfollowing the Great Migration and hoping something gets killed soon
yup. ugly
Unlike most hyenas, the spotted hyena is a social animal and hunts in packs, probably because they follow migrating animals.
they hang out in packs
When they do their own hunting, spotted hyenas kill with their teeth and not their claws. They take care of other animals’ leftovers with those sharp teeth (and lack of compunction about eating something that’s clearly been dead for ages). As Wikipedia describes them, “Spotted hyenas evolved sharp carnassials behind their crushing premolars, therefore they did not need to wait for their prey to die, and thus became pack hunters as well as scavengers.” [1]
Along with bats, the spotted hyena is one of the very few creatures that can survive a rabies infection. Their diet of rotting meat gives them powerful concentrations of antibodies in their saliva.
Our safari guide told us that lions only eat meat. The hyenas then move in. They’re able to completely digest the organic matter found in bones, and their skulls and teeth are specialized to crack large bones and cut through animal hides.
Along with the hyenas come the carrion birds – two more of the Ugly Five. You’ll meet them soon.
I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. Recent awards include Finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award for The Taste of Your Name and Finalist for Greece’s Eyelands 11th International Short Story Contest.
This is the first time I’ve ever had a poem published. Still Point Arts Quarterly is a very beautiful publication. Shanti Arts
I could not feel prouder or more honored to have Cranes accepted by this magazine.
The summer issue can either be purchased as a printed magazine or viewed online for free. If you scroll down this page for Still Point Arts Quarterly, click on my name to read Cranes. The entire issue is gorgeous, and worth ordering in print. You can also view it directly here: Cranes
I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. Recent awards include Finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award for The Taste of Your Name and Finalist for Greece’s Eyelands 11th International Short Story Contest.
Follow this link to learn more about me and buy my books
For me, one of the most exciting events during our two weeks in Tanzania was completely unexpected. We’d spent days on the Serengeti Plain to see the Great Migration. Now we were driving to the Ngorogoro Conservation Area. We halted very close to the Olduvai Gorge at a rest area with public toilets. [1] A sign advertising our next destination stood on one side of the parking lot.
Tanzania 2026
On the other side UNESCO had erected a huge plaque. Curious, I went over to read it.
I was standing less than 30 miles from where Mary Leakey discovered the Zinjanthropus skull, which pushed back the known timeline of human evolution to 1.75 million years ago and confirmed Africa as the cradle of humankind. AND! She found the Proconsul skull that connected us to a prehistoric ape ancestor. AND! She found the Laetoli footprints, fossil footprints proving early humans had walked erect far longer than scientists had believed. AND! The UNESCO World Heritage sign firmly gave all the credit to Mary, where it belongs.
I was out of my mind with excitement as I read. For some reason I’d always thought that those paleoanthropological discoveries occurred in Kenya (where the Leakeys had also conducted digs). To be so close to where the incredible artifacts were found, and to see her groundbreaking discoveries properly credited at last, thrilled me beyond words.
I am in awe. Tanzania 2026
Mary Leakey has been called ‘the woman who found our ancestors’. But, for as long as I can remember, her husband Louis got (stole!) all the credit. Louis Leakey was charismatic, showy, and a bit of a charlatan. He was skilled at fundraising and loved being in the limelight of fame. When Mary’s discoveries became famous, he traveled around the US to lecture about ‘his’ finds and speculate about their significance.
Mary quietly went on with her field work. She couldn’t care less about fame and wasn’t a bit intimidated by male colleagues.
For almost a century people have been trying to explain away the lack of credit she received. Sometimes her husband’s theft is described as a collaborative effort. As I was putting together this blog post, I was annoyed when I read an article in an article in The Roanoke Times, that “marriage to Mary Nicol paired Leakey with a first-rate scientist freeing him to work the public relations side of science. … Primarily using Mary’s work, Louis regained his scientific reputation.” [2] In other words, she did the work and he got all the credit.
The Smithsonian Magazine’s profile of Mary is even worse. The author said, “It’s worth remembering that Mary Leakey wasn’t university-educated and got her start as an illustrator on archaeological digs like the one where she first met Louis. And that Louis Leakey was already “a Cambridge University professor with an established reputation for fieldwork in East Africa,” according to Barnes, when he left his pregnant first wife to marry Mary, who was in her early twenties. Mary was talented, but she probably wasn’t sure how to play the game of academia, particularly in a field as fraught with intense differences of interpretation as paleoanthropology, which requires practitioners to form extended arguments off a few remaining physical clues about our ancient ancestors.” [3]
The article is another attempt to explain away her husband’s claim to her incredible discoveries as if really, he was just doing her a big favor. This is utter bullshit.
My questions are: WHY is it worth remembering that Mary Leakey wasn’t university educated? Mary probably wasn’t sure how to play the game?? A more plausable explanation is the well known fact that she didn’t indulge in speculation! Mary believed in using science and research to reach the conclusions.
I didn’t know that Uwe took my photo as I paid my respects before that sign. On that afternoon I felt an intense connection to our common ancestors, going back millions and millions of years. Standing where she had, where my first humanoid ancestors stood, made me dizzy.
It took my breath away and brought me close to tears. Still does, actually.
In honor of Mary Douglas Nicol Leakey, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996
NOTES: As if all this wasn’t enough, Mary also created a system to classify the stone tools they found at Olduvai. At the Laetoli site where she discovered the footprints, she also found hominin fossils more than 3.75 million years old. She discovered fifteen new animal species. She was responsible for creating a new genus. And she was the first to write about the Kondoa Irangi Rock Paintings in central Tanzania.
[1] Usually we made bush toilets, where you climb out of the jeep and duck down behind the back of it in the road. [2] The Roanoke Times . [3] And the title! “Mary Leakey’s Husband (Sort of) Took Credit For Her Groundbreaking Work on Humanity’s Origins.” Come on, Smithsonian! You’ve got to be kidding. https://www.smithsonianmag.
I am a Best American Essays-nominated writer. My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded, The Trail Back Out, and The Taste of Your Name. Recent awards include Finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award for The Taste of Your Name and Finalist for Greece’s Eyelands 11th International Short Story Contest.
