
Image captured near a closed building at the Detroit Zoo.
Image captured near a closed building at the Detroit Zoo.
At the Detroit Zoo.
Last Saturday was gray and bitterly cold, the perfect day for the zoo. Although the butterfly garden had not received a shipment in many weeks, the habitat was beautiful, and the three butterfly species present included the splendid Blue Morpho. I could have spent the entire visit there and in the free-flight aviary next door, “If this isn’t nice, then I don’t know what is,” running in an endless inward loop just behind my smiling lips. Had we not ventured out, though, I’d have missed so many other animals, including a wolverine, the primates, two of the happiest (seeming) wolves I’ve ever seen, and, of course, the rhino, among others.
Images, unedited and taken with phone, from our recent trip to Franklin Park Zoo.
Over the last nine days, I have, among other things:
■ followed the progress of the robin family that calls our forsythia bush, “Home”;
■ mowed the lawn three times (!!);
■ seen a play (Suddenly, Last Summer at the Raven);
■ visited the Lincoln Park Zoo;
■ prepared for and undergone one of those screenings doctors recommend for all of us fifty-plus folk;
■ potted a couple of new plants and repotted some older ones;
■ lost a battle against an unidentified and insistent weed in my back garden area;
■ seen a good movie (I, Tonya) and a good documentary (Jane);
■ caught up on the harrowing second season of The Handmaid’s Tale;
■ fretted about how little I have practiced my music; and
■ finished four books:
— Sometimes I Lie (Alice Feeney; 2017. Fiction.)
— Buried Child (Sam Shepherd; 1978. Drama.)
— The Idealist (Justin Peters; 2016. Non-fiction.)
— Behold the Dreamers (Imbolo Mbue; 2016. Fiction.)
For the commonplace book, from Act Two of Buried Child:
SHELLY: Can’t we just drive to New Mexico? This is terrible, Vince! I don’t want to stay here. In this house. I thought it was going to be turkey dinners and apple pie and all that kinda stuff.
VINCE: Well I hate to disappoint you!
SHELLY: I’m not disappointed! I’m fuckin’ terrified! I wanna’ go!
What have you planned for the long weekend?