Yes, yes, it’s been a while. Also, I’m well aware that everyone and their dog has already posted their eclipse photos, but these are my photos, so I’m going to share them days later than everybody else.

Before it all started. The little dark spots are sunspots.

Partway through

80%! We didn’t get to experience totality this time around, but it was still great to see the daylight dim in the middle of the day. I’d forgotten how strange it is to see the light fade and the colors around me slowly desaturate. All the birds fell silent, and it got noticeably cooler. I’m glad things were quiet enough at work that I could take my camera (with a solar filter) out to get some photos.

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Obligatory Mina Photo:

I woke her up from a nap to get this photo. I don’t feel bad about that, as she’s been waking me up around 4:30 every morning for the past week or so. And sure, I’ll go right back to sleep, but the fact remains that she wakes me up, and I don’t have the same opportunity to take a nap in the middle of the day the way she does.

When she is awake, she’s been spending more time sitting in the windows. Now that spring is fully here, there are plenty of birds and squirrels for her to watch. None of them have landed on the window ledge yet, but it’s only a matter of time.

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What I’ve Been Reading:

A lot of nonfiction. A lot. So much nonfiction.

It’s mostly been biographies of medieval and early modern people, of which the highlight so far has been Daughters of Chivalry: The Forgotten Children of Edward I by Kelcey Wilson-Lee, which is about Edward I’s daughters- vibrant women I’d never heard about before, except as footnotes from the reigns of Edward I and Edward II. They were a fascinating collection of women, particularly Joanna, who was married off to a rebellious English lord to try to keep him in line. It didn’t work, but he eventually died and Joanna took control of her lands. Then she decided to marry for love, and while her father, Edward I, was furious at first, he eventually came to like his son-in-law.

I’m currently reading Peter Ackroyd’s Shakespeare: The Biography, which is obviously a biography of England’s great playwright. While it makes a few suppositions about Shakespeare and his father John, Ackroyd makes it clear that his ideas are only possibilities and not provable, which I appreciate. The book also provides a look at the time and places where Shakespeare lived, and gives a sense of what sorts of creative circles he was moving in throughout his career. I’m a little more than halfway through, and looking forward to the rest of it.

Medieval history isn’t the only history I’ve been looking at lately. The library finally delivered my hold of Hanif Aqdurraqib’s A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance, and I listened to the audiobook over the weekend. It was a gorgeously written collection of essays about Black performers like Josephine Baker, Whitney Huston, Michael Jackson, and others, and also about Aqdurraqib’s life as a young Black man in America. I’m not sure if my library has any of Aqdurraqib’s other books, but I’m interested in reading more of them.

In addition to Ackroyd’s biography of William Shakespeare, I’m also reading James Meek’s historical novel, To Calais, in Ordinary Time, which is about three very different people traveling from various parts of England to Calais, just as the Black Death is coming in from the continent. A young plowman joins a company of archers, a noblewoman is fleeing a marriage she doesn’t want, and a Scottish proctor is heading to Avignon to complete some unfinished business. Meek did an incredible thing with the perspectives, as each one has a unique voice with radically different linguistic quirks. The plowman, for example, speaks with a voice that is much closer to middle English, while the proctor’s voice is more modern feeling, but still very formal. This is a fascinating novel, but it’s been slow going since I have to play much closer attention to the plowman’s sections so I don’t lose track of what’s going on.

Once I finish that, I have a growing collection of library holds to get through. Most of them are fairly short, though, so I’m not too worried about finishing them all before they’re due.

I say that now, and something will probably happen that keeps me from getting to any of them in time.

Hopefully not. I’m looking forward to all of them. And I’ll report back about them. Eventually.