Compulsively reading EBMUD's (I love that there is no author but the state) Plants and Landscapes for Summer Dry Gardens and Heidi Gildemeister's Mediterranean Gardening: a Waterwise Approach. Bought the last along with 11 other books, all lay studies of plants and land use, from U of California's sale. My favorite so far has been Experience the California Coast: A Guide to Beaches and Parks in Northern California. Again, no author but the "California Costal Commission." Over breakfast I've been reading Bird Brains: The Intelligence of Crows, Ravens, Magpies, and Jays by Candace Savage, also bought from the sale, which assures that the birds are very intelligent. Perfect for reading over yogurt and tea.

Then for fun, rereading Gertrude Stein's "What is English Literature?" Realized my copy has notes from undergraduate, when I wrote with fountain pen. And then another layer in red ballpoint from some time in graduate school. Then I added another now in blue rolling ball. My copy no longer has spine.

Is the island life what gets called "Empire" in the academy at turn of twentieth century?

"As the time went on to the end of the nineteenth century and Victoria was over and the Boer war it began to be a little different in England. The daily island life was less daily and the owning everything outside was less owning, and, this should be remembered, there were a great many writing but the writing was not so good." (46)