With all the angst and intensity in the news these days, I decided to post a photo of somewhere beautiful. This image makes me feel calmer every time I look at it.
This is Milford Sound in the UNESCO-listed Fjordland National Park on the South Island, New Zealand. Uwe and I visited New Zealand for six weeks in February/March. Check out the sailboat: it gives some perspective on how massive the fjord walls are!
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.
I present to you installment #7 from my blog thread describing what to call groups of animals … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page. (I’m especially proud of No. 5 on this week’s list!)
Their knot knotted in the mud.
He heard the murmuration’s murmurs.
Unblinking, the stare stared back.
The dole didn’t look doleful.
The earth’s earth was in the earth. ***
Stuffy noses don’t suit a sute.
Stare, Raptor rescue center, AustraliaDole, Wong Tai Sin Medicine Temple, New Territories, China
Answers:
Knot of toads [1]
Murmuration of starlings
Stare of owls [2]
Dole of turtles [3]
Earth of foxes; place the vixen (female fox) searches out to raise her kits; ground she finds the earth in. ***3 uses of the word! [4]
Sute of bloodhounds
Knot member, back trails Cranberry Lake, Adirondacks USA
I’m beyond dismayed – I am furious. The Trump administration is gutting environmental protections. Take action. Speak up! Write letters, make phone calls, donate to organizations like the Environmental Defense Fund and Greenpeace. Volunteer.
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.
Yet another addition to my blog thread describing what to call groups of animals! … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
A rookery will hardly rook you.
The cast cast out sand.
The quivering quiver swayed and waited….
Culture doesn’t care about culture.
This lounge member lunged!
The swarm swarmed my sandwich and I couldn’t eat it.
Answers:
Quiver, Snake Farm (Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute), Bangkok Thailand
Rookery of gooney birds [1]
Cast of crabs
Quiver of cobras
Culture of bacteria
Lounge of lizards [2]
Swarm of flies [3]
Lounge member, Khao Lak National Park, ThailandCast, Khao Lak, Thailand
I’m beyond dismayed – I am furious. The Trump administration is gutting environmental protections. Take action. Speak up! Volunteer. 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.
Another installment from my blog thread describing what to call groups of animals … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
The generation generated alarm in the audience.
I was not bowled over by the barrel barreling towards us….
A big congregation congregated on the beach.
The turn turned again towards the sun.
The horde should have hoarded their food.
The fleet fleet ran off.
Answers:
Generation, Snake Farm (Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute), Bangkok Thailand
Generation of vipers [1]
Barrel of monkeys
Congregation of plovers
Turn of turtles [2]
Horde of hamsters
Fleet of mud hens
Barrel, southern ThailandTurn, Wong Tai Sin Medicine Temple, New Territories, China
I’m beyond dismayed – I am furious. The Trump administration is gutting environmental protections. Take action. Speak up! Write letters, make phone calls, donate to organizations like the Environmental Defense Fund and Greenpeace. Volunteer.
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.
Uwe and I spent 6 weeks exploring New Zealand. The two islands are so far away and take so long to reach that we wanted to see as much as possible. The landscape is spectacular, from fjords to mountain ranges to rolling hills and wide-open plains. Plenty of room for people and hobbits, if you’re a Lord of the Rings fan. (Full disclosure: I sure am!) We did lots of short hikes and knew we’d see some great nature.
What I’d forgotten is that the population of sheep in New Zealand far outstrips that of humans. Look who what we saw on a hike in Takapūneke Reserve near Akaroa on the south island.
According to a Radio New Zealand article from 3 May 2024,
“Sheep numbers continue to fall due to land conversion to forestry. New StatsNZ figures show the national flock dropped by 3 percent in the year to June 2023 to 24.4 million sheep. The decline in sheep numbers followed a two percent drop the year before. With a population of about 5.3 million people – it now meant there was just 4.6 sheep per person.” [1] The title of the article was this: New Zealand’s iconic sheep-to-person ratio keeps falling.
“And just what do you humans think you’re doing in our park?”
Just 4.6 sheep per person. I don’t know if this is a good stat or something to worry about – but I remember well that on that hike when we came around a hillside on a steep path, we scared the s**t out of a ewe. She backed up in panic and took off crashing through the brush!
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’s the next installment from my blog thread describing what to call groups of animals! … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
Grain needs a grist!
The sound of the sounder almost gave her a heart attack.
The flock flocked on his poor kids.
Wow, the muster mustered such gaudy colors.
When my bike ran over the bike, I knew I was in big trouble.
The drove drove towards us in the dirt road.
Muster member
Answers:
Grist of bees [1]
Sounder of wild boar
Flock of lice
Muster of peacocks
Bike of hornets [2]
Drove of horses
Drove, Northern ThailandGrist, Khao Yai National Park, Thailand
NOTES: [1] Status: Endangered “….[P]ollinators are under threat around the world…about 40 percent of invertebrate pollinator species (such as bees and butterflies) are facing extinction.” This could have major implications for world food supply, because “about 75 percent of the world’s food crops … depend at least partly on pollination.” NPR Report 35 UK bees species are under threat of extinction, and all species face serious threats. UK Bees [2] European hornets are a protected species in Germany. European_hornet
I’m beyond dismayed – I am furious. The Trump administration is gutting environmental protections. Take action. 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. My recent awards are Finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award and Finalist for Greece’s Eyelands 11th International Short Story Contest.
Here is the third installment from my blog thread describing what to call groups of animals … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
The charm charmed me again with their singing.
A huge cloud clouded the sky, and ruined any chance of a good photo.
The band banded together, hoping no one would notice.
A blue fluther fluthered in the tide. [1]
A mob mobbed Uluru.
The squadron flew off in a squadron. [2]
Answers:
Charm or chirm of finches
Cloud of gnats
Band of gorillas [3]
Fluther of jellyfish [4]
Mob of kangaroos [5]
Squadron of pelicans
Fluther, Loro Parque, TenerifaSquadron
NOTES: [1] There are 3 wonderful names for jellyfish groups. Fluther is the second [2] A military flight formation [3] Status: Endangered to Critically Endangered WWF [4] Using fluther in a sentence even allowed me to make up a verb! [5] According to the IUCN Red List, tree kangaroos range from near threatened to critically endangered across the various species. Intl Fund for Animal Welfare
Band, Loro Parque, Tenerifa
I’m beyond dismayed – I am furious. The Trump administration is gutting environmental protections. Take action. 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. My most recent book The Taste of Your Name was a finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award.
This is the second installment from my blog thread describing what to call groups of animals … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
“Double double, toil and trouble, fire burn and caldron bubble,” she cackled. Then the witch threw another cauldron into the caldron. [1]
The prickle prickled no one that day.
And the clutch clutched at the edges of the baskets.
Exaltation exalted the evening with the complex songs of the family Alaudidae.
A smack smacks into goo on the rocks.
The romping romp are some of my favorite critters.
Prickle, Laos
Answers:
Cauldron of bats [2]
Prickle of porcupines
Clutch of birds
Exaltation of larks
Smack of jellyfish [3]
Romp of otters [4]
Smack, Loro Parque, TenerifaCauldron, Khao Yai National Park, Thailand
I’m beyond dismayed – I am furious. The Trump administration is gutting environmental protections. Take action. 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. My most recent book The Taste of Your Name was a finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award.
This basket was made in Botswana. I spotted it hanging on a wall among much brighter-colored baskets. I asked to see it, and was told that the colors are from traditional materials. The main material used to make Botswana baskets is raw fibres of the Mokola or ‘vegetable ivory’ palm tree. Brown dye tones are won from the bark and roots of Motlhakola and Motsentisila trees.
After I bought this basket I looked up the pattern, suspecting that it had to have an interesting name. This pattern is called the Knees of the Tortoise.
My books are Broken In: A Novel in Stories, Tsunami Cowboys, Grounded and The Trail Back Out.
Tsunami Cowboys was longlisted for the 2019 ScreenCraft Cinematic Book Award. Broken In: A Novel in Stories was semifinalist for the international 2020 Hawk Mountain Short Story Collection Award from Hidden River Arts and Finalist for Greece’s 2021 Eyelands Book of the Year Award (Short Stories).
The Trail Back Out was the 2023 San Francisco Book Festival Winner for General Fiction, American Book Fest 2020 Best Book Award Finalist: Fiction Anthologies, Runner-Up for the 2021 Top Shelf Award, 2021 IAN Book of the Year Award Short Story Collection Finalist, and awarded a 2021 Wishing Shelf Red Ribbon. The title story The Trail Back Out was longlisted for the 2021 ScreenCraft Cinematic Short Story Award.
Click here for my author page to learn more about me and purchase my books.
I dedicated this blog thread to my father Bobbo, who worked for the Forest Service. On one of our last family visits we sat around and gleefully read out a list describing groups of animals … I now dedicate it to our endangered planet.
See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
The shrewdness shrewdly assessed the jungle floor.
This obstinacy obstinately refused to budge.
The covert covertly hid, migrating only at night.
The big bask basked in the river, seemingly aware nothing would dare attack them.
In spite of myself I was charmed by the pitiful piteousness.
The safe sought safety on the shoreline.
Obstinacy, Perfume River, Vietnam
Answers:
Shrewdness of apes [1]
Obstinacy of buffalo
Covert of coots
Bask of crocodiles
Piteousness of doves
Safe of ducks (on land)
Part of a piteousness, Hampi, IndiaBask member basking, Khao Yai National Park, Thailand
I’m beyond dismayed – I am furious. The Trump administration is gutting environmental protections. Take action. 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. My most recent book The Taste of Your Name was a finalist for the 2025 Compass Press Book Award.
Yet another addition to my blog thread describing what to call groups of animals! … See how many you can guess. Answers listed at the bottom of the page.
After I bought this basket I looked up the pattern, suspecting that it had to have an interesting name. This pattern is called the Knees of the Tortoise.
