a library of souls

- Birbs, 19 Feb 2026: as I scattered bird food an acrobatic female Dunnock flew cms in front of my legs to perch just inside the hedge but her male follower had to brake suddenly and veer off into the snow.

- Reading, February 2026 part 2 of 2: finished book 26, still no dnfs this year.

19. The Fossil Woman, by Tom Sharpe, 2020, 5/5
The best biography of professional palaeontologist Mary Anning imo.

20. The Stone Book Quartet, by Alan Garner, 1978, 5/5
A children's, historical-ish, composite novel (or collection of short stories). As good as the first time I read it (and garnering much the same reactions from me).

23. Physics for Cats, by Tom Gauld, 2025, 5/5
Another excellent collection of science-themed cartoons (or short comics): "And then, as suddenly as he'd appeared, the masked botanist was gone, leaving the townspeople with only an enriched knowledge of local flora and fungi to remember him by."

24. The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels, by India Holton, 2021, 5/5
A comedy, fantasy, romance novel, which does what it does as well as it can.

25. A Year with Gilbert White, the first great nature writer, by Jenny Uglow, 2025, 5/5
( Shorter: it's Jenny Uglow so it's a good biography. )

pg67: Each hanging catkin is a long cluster of around 240 minuscule flowers, formed the previous summer; the slightest breath of air makes them shiver, wafting dusty yellow pollen to another tree, sometimes quite far away. The female flowers appear as a green bud, but though each one contains up to fourteen flowers, only the styles poke out - delicate, brilliant red tubes no longer than a millimetre or two - with a sticky stigma to catch the wind-blown pollen. From these, the clusters of hazel nuts grow. A strange, elaborate magic.

pg334 found poem (so many, lol):
My well rises.
My hedges are beautifully tinged.
Wood-larks sing sweetly
thro' this soft weather.
No swallows.

26. Drawn to Nature, Gilbert White and the artists, by Simon Martin, 2021, 5/5
An art exhibition catalogue but published as a normal format hardback book.
( Contents under cut. )

A mild horror-themed post for you to skip. :-)

- Cute Ceriodaphnia water flea (wikipedia) cosplaying as a screaming ghost in a nice comfy empire-line patchwork dress.

- Another Daphnia water flea (wikipedia) ghost planning to lay her eggs soon... somewhere very near you.... ;-)

- Reading, February 2026 part 1 of 2: the Darkwood series.

18. Darkwood, Darkwood 1, by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, 2019, 4/5

The author is better known for her contributions to Horrible Histories and various topical satire shows including The Now Show so she's well equipped to write a satirical fantasy novel critiquing anglophone western culture, as it slithers towards the far right, through the medium of a "middle grade and up" novel reclaiming populist fairytale motifs. The motivations that cause many ordinary people to accept creeping fascism are explored through fear of difference, and an army marching to the rhythm of "Something must be done. Something must be done." The main characters include step-parents who're doing their best, girls who do maths and engineering, boys who do witchcraft; and Snow, the White Knight, who has been "living as a Dwarf" for years. Snow and Buttercup, the Cake Witch, share some Very Special Smiles. I additionally enjoyed the in-jokes about the Bin Men who must have offerings left out every Monday night, and gossiping Mother Goggins (Postman Pat shoutout), and the many humorous one-liners and puns, e.g. chapter titles: The Spider Who Came in from the Cold; and Run, Forest, Run. The plotting and pacing of the ending didn't fully work for me (the fascists are mostly talked out of their fanatical murderous hate and That One Guy who can't be talked around seals his own fate so Our Heroes keep their hands clean and their hats white) and the cliffhanger for the second book was as irritating as such ploys always are so 4/5.

21. Such Big Teeth, Darkwood 2, by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, 2020, 4/5

The fascists continue to back down, and chat, and walk away, and fail to be convincingly murdery enough, so the protags can survive encounters and stroll away with unambiguously clean hands. And when the fash with comparatively high tech weapons, including a flying boat, set an ambush they bring melee weapons instead of bows which is wholly unrealistic. Their elections, during which blustering male "orange" candidate stands against a mumsy female "green" candidate (who is very much a lesser EVIL in this book - the use of "green" here being the one truly bum note from a UK point of view), are as rigged as democracy in our world. And fear of the Other is used to justify fascist control as always. Apart from my few quibbles the writing is funny and the protags have their hearts in good places. A transgendered werewolf is added to the main characters.

22. The Glass Coffin, Darkwood 3, by Gabby Hutchinson Crouch, 2021, 4/5

( One paragraph cut for spoilery details. )

A consistent 4/5 for each novel and the whole series.

Warning for irritation to people who have to deal with real-world fascists and know they can't be talked around (see western politics).

[/prompted by a conversation with another disabled person this morning]

Just because a doctor suggests a test doesn't mean you have to do it. Always ask how the results might effect your treatment or health outcome and if there isn't a satisfactory answer then refuse any test that is painful, or expensive, or might have some other negative outcome outweighing any positives.

Example from my actual life (paraphrased but I swear this is an accurate summary):

Doctor: The scan showed you have [damage]. The next step is to give you the [electric shocks from a cattle prod] test.

Me: But y tho?

Doctor: ::explains how test is conducted by giving the patient electric shocks from a cattle prod::

Me: Yes I understand, but y tho?

Doctors: To measure the ability of your nerves and muscles to conduct electricity.

Me: Yes, but y tho?

Doctor, beginning to sound less assured: Because it's a standard test?

Me: And how would the results effect my treatment / outcome?

Doctor: ... ... ... It wouldn't?

Me: So, imma gonna skip the electric shocks from a cattle prod test, 'k thnx!

In conclusion specifically: after this bizarre conversation I checked the more sensible patient-centred discussion websites, as one does, and discovered long comment sections full of people I can summarise as "It hurt and made no difference to anything" with a few people saying they'd been through this test more than once! I'm sure there must be some actual medical purpose for which these tests give valid and useful results (or there were at some time in the recent past) but without in-depth research I didn't find any. Basically, if you have numbness or pain and can verbalise this clearly then telling the doctor is as much use as them electrocuting you with a cattle prod, and probably more use because patients are likely to be more accurate (e.g. it would be easy to misplace an electrode and get a false negative).

In conclusion generally, I repeat: just because a doctor suggests a test doesn't mean you have to do it. Always ask how the results might effect your treatment or health outcome and if there isn't a satisfactory answer then refuse any test that is painful, or expensive, or might have some other negative outcome outweighing any positives. OBV.