Month: May 2020

Weekly Roundup: Bird Edition

On By JuliaIn Uncategorized3 Comments
via Boston Public Library/Unsplash

Hi guys! Happy Friday! For your weekend enjoyment, here’s a quick list of links related to this week’s topic: BIRDS, BIRDS, BIRDS. Click, read, listen, and share.

Merlin, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s bird identification app, is my favorite app of all time. Not just my favorite nature app, mind you, my favorite app period. It’s unbelievably easy to use, gratifying, and super fun (especially the birdsong recordings). Plus, when you successfully ID a bird, that info is shared with the lab, which helps them track and better understand bird populations around the globe. Important stuff, people!

While you’re at it, check out some of the Cornell Lab’s live bird cams, and see how the other half lives (if the other half is birds). I watched a Bermuda petrel chick sleep for five minutes this morning and my serenity levels went through the roof. Staring at another person for five straight minutes while they sleep might be kind of creepy, but with birds it’s totally encouraged.

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All Together Now

On By JuliaIn Uncategorized4 Comments

Lately when I wake up, I can hear birds outside my window. And not just one or two birds, but a whole song-shower that rings through the entire neighborhood. I still hear the usual leaf blowers too (can you really say you live in the suburbs if you don’t wake up to a leaf blower?), but the rattle and roar of cars is mostly missing.

An America Robin perches on a brach
Oh, were you not up yet? (Robert Thiemann/Unsplash)

When my family first moved to this area about 20 years ago, it was remarkably quiet–a little too quiet, as far as College Era me was concerned. I was put off by the eerie void of human sounds, with only the wind, leaves, and birds announcing themselves. But now, the empty rolling hills that used to surround us have been developed, covered with waves of houses, divided by roadways that are predictably packed. At some point during the last year, I stood in our backyard and just listened to the traffic, feeling small, and helpless, and sad. As I listened, it hit me that the quiet I had once found creepy was well and truly gone forever—unless there’s some kind of giant catastrophe or something, I thought.

Well.

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Julia Child Is The Hero We All Need

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Over these last several weeks, my priorities have gotten pretty simple. I really only have two: stay [mostly] sane, and eat enough food each day to keep me alive until the next day arrives. Easy, right? You’d think so, but it turns out I need help with both. Thankfully, television has swooped in with the answer. My hero, my head coach, my culinary therapist-in-chief, is the one and only Julia Child. I started watching her classic show The French Chef a couple of weeks ago, and I’m convinced she’s the beacon of awesomeness we all need right now. Why? I’ll tell you why.

  1. Julia Child is the least full of shit person I have ever seen on television—a true blessing during a time when our collective bullshit meter is just about TAPPED OUT. She tells it fully, unrepentantly as it is, on matters culinary and otherwise. And she’s not shy about her opinions, either. In an episode titled “Bringing In The New Year” (S2E4), she shows us a small rolling pin she bought at her favorite hardware store*, and then, proclaiming “This is a toy!”, she slams it into the garbage can—with force, guys. She goes on to explain that she wanted viewers at home to understand that small rolling pins are (and I’m slightly paraphrasing here, but I think she’d approve) totally worthless and should never be used by anyone, ever, for any purpose, let alone baking. This is my kind of woman. The fact that she has no discernable agenda other than stating facts and hyping your own ability to cook tasty French food makes her seem trustworthy and reliable, two qualities that are a major plus during a crisis.

*Side note, a hardware store that also sells cookware? It’s the most quaint thing I’ve heard all day. Julia mentions buying all sorts of things at hers, from the notorious trash pin to roasting pans, cutting boards, kitchen twine, and handy tools of every kind. Do you have one where you live? I don’t, and I’m incredibly jealous of you if you do.

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