06:30 this morning: smoke from the wildfires that are burning across the Pacific Northwest has reached us here in northwest Oregon.

After posting this to my Reddit account, I received a note from Reddit encouraging me to post it to the @inaturalist.bsky.social Reddit group. As I result I received a permanent ban from that group.

I recently took a subscription to "Natural History" and the first issue arrived in my my post box yesterday. If you're a naturalist in the U.S., I highly encourage you to support the nation's only magazine dedicated to the public understanding of natural history by taking a subscription yourself.

The arrival of a new issue of the @royentsoc.bsky.social's journal "Antenna" is always a welcome occurrence. As a general naturalist I particularly enjoy Antenna as the articles are serious (well mostly; some are delightfully playful as well) yet accessible.

The @uchicagopress.bsky.social had a sale. It would have been very impolite of me not to buy a book or two during it. @reaktionbooks.bsky.social #Booksky

Thank you @blackwells.bsky.social for helping to keep this forlorn inmate of the barking mad former colony that is the United States well supplied with proper British editions of books, such as @lucylapwing.bsky.social's "Love is a Toad," that are unavailable in shops here. #Booksky

@harvardpress.bsky.social had a sale. It would have been impolite of me not to buy something. #Booksky

The books I purchased during the big @princetonupress.bsky.social book sale arrived today. 🤓📚 #Booksky

Well, it looks like the "porn, sports, and cars" bots have found our lovely little @bsky.app. I shall be reporting each one with both vim and vigor.

@yalepress.bsky.social had a sale. It would have been rude of me not to. #Booksky

Happy publication day!

At university, the focus of my studies in English literature began as Victorian and by graduation had moved back to 18th century. Years later it had moved further back to 16th century. Presently it is firmly in the Medieval period, and I'm now reading Middle English with ease and loving it. #Booksky

Beltane greetings to one and all.

"Time, ladies and gentlemen, please!" #Booksky

Because reviewing natural history books doesn't feed the bulldog, I have a bread and cheese job developing microscopes, binoculars, and other optical instruments. Presently I'm at @nstaofficial.bsky.social talking about @celestronuniverse.bsky.social microscopes. If you're here, I'm at stand 1641.

Thank you very much, Blackwell's. Without you and your willingness to send books to the former colonies, I would be deprived of the joy of reading many of the fine works of modern British natural history. @chiffchat.bsky.social @britishwildlife.bsky.social @amandatuke.bsky.social #Booksky

A tip of my tweed cap to @pemberleybooks.bsky.social for so carefully packing the copy of E.B. Ford's classic New Naturalist #1 volume "Butterflies" for its journey half way around the world to me. #Booksky

The neighbors are getting a wee bit nosey today.

To all who are celebrating today, particularly those in Iran who are trying to do so while mourning as well.

I happened upon this photo of Caesar the Llama and myself at the @entsocamerica.bsky.social convention in Portland. That was a fine day indeed.

After reading one page of Prof. Jim Endersby's "The Arrival of the Fittest" (@uchicagopress.bsky.social) I interrupted my reading of it to read Edith Wharton's short story "The Debt" (@libraryofamerica.bsky.social) from which the title is taken so as to be ready for any forthcoming nuances. #Booksky

Please join with me in honouring the life and work of Charles Robert Darwin, JP FRS FRGS FLS FZS, born on this date in 1809. He was a serious-minded, deeply moral, dignified man; a tireless scholar, and a devoted husband and father. His legacy deserves respect accordingly.

Thank you Sandra Boynton for so superbly summing up the day for those of us with absolutely no interest in American football. 🙂

A copy of "Rigby's Encyclopaedia of the Herring" (@hurstpublishers.bsky.social) arrived today. I'm keen to learn from it how to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with one. 😉 In all serious, it looks to be filled with interesting information and I'm very much looking forward to reading it.

The things one learns about ones small town when following a link to an eBird report that opens a Google map. 😳

Thank you very much to the many businesses at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), such as the Great American Bagel Bakery, that display the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower 🌻. It is a welcoming sign indeed to all of us for whom the sunflower has made travel so much easier and more pleasant.

On my list of goals for 2026: learn #astronomy. My @celestronuniverse.bsky.social PowerSeeker 80 EQ telescope arrived today. Let the discoveries begin! 🌖🔭

Shopping at Bruce's Candy in Cannon Beach, I noticed a machine that has long been a popular fixture there but as the present U.S. president abruptly discontinued the penny, it will, with all others like it, soon disappear. Thus a beloved family vacation tradition dies. I pressed one in its honor.

Browsing in the Cannon Beach Book Company this afternoon, I noted a copy of @nathaliaholt.bsky.social's "The Beast in the Clouds" (@simonandschuster.bsky.social). It looks to be quite an interesting story indeed! #Booksky