So, as I’ve been pointing out far too often on my blog and Instagram lately, I’ve been ill for the past few days. I must have caught flu from somebody at work so have been achy, shivery, and pathetic since Friday. I’d hoped that I would spend the time in bed to get ahead with some reading but I’ve basically had no energy. The idea of picking up a book and trying to take it in was more than I could cope with. It meant that I was faced with another possibly Wednesday without a review, which made me feel even more pathetic. But, thankfully, Haruki Murakami came to my rescue. In honour of his 70th birthday this year, Murakami’s short story Birthday Girl was released in its own adorable edition. The story focuses on the 20th birthday of a waitress so, I guess, it’s kind of fortuitous that today…

I’ve read some good books this month and there’s so many I want to read next. These are the books I read in January, click on the title’s to go to my review.

When All Is Said And Done by Anne Griffin

I got this book from Netgalley to review. I really enjoyed it, a lovely character who tells us his life story.

Help Me! One Woman’s Quest To Find Out If Self-Help Really Can Change Your Life by Marianne Power

This was an ebook I bought on Amazon, it felt like reading a romantic-comedy, I enjoyed. If you think you need to read a self-help book read this.

The Memoirs Of Sherlock Holmes

I got this book for free from a website called Project Gutenberg, they offer all their books free, it’s legal as they’re all out of copyright. I got back into Sherlock Holmes this year when…

This book was part of a pamper package that I won from A Cornish Geek last year.

Blurb from Quercus Books

“A woman on the edge of the sea finds a girl on the edge of life. 

Brittle but not yet broken, Ia Pendilly ekes out a fierce life in a caravan on the coast of Cornwall. In years of living with Bran – her embattled, battering cousin and common law husband – she’s never yet had her own baby. So when she discovers the waif washed up on the shore, Ia takes the risk and rescues her. And the girl, in turn, will rescue something in Ia – “

My thoughts

All Rivers Run Free intrigued me from the start, I loved the idea and the setting. Who doesn’t love Cornwall? When I started to read it I realised it’s actually a dystopian story; a distant future where civilisation…

Here I go again with photos of birds – this time all photographs were taken in Alberta, Canada. Some breeds are very common, others were a complete surprise and a lovely treat. Taken over a couple of years in various places in the province, and in all seasons. I love birds!!!!

“Like a true nature’s child,

we were born,

born to be wild.”

The wild grizzlies in these photos were photographed in The Knight Inlet in British Columbia Canada. The inlet is contained within the largest temperate rain forest on earth and has a thriving grizzly bear population.

The bears live in a remote location reachable only by float plane or small boat. We viewed bears from open air wooden platforms that are approximately 12 feet above the bears. The platforms are similar to bird hides familiar to bird watchers. Access to the platforms is carefully limited and regulated. Platform visitors are accompanied by guides. Purposely approaching wild grizzly bears without such precautions would be extremely dangerous to both humans and bears.

The bears, like this juvenile, are quite focused on consuming salmon and have devised an ingenious fishing method,

they submarine with their eyes open under water, and their ears…

all snug in their beds,

while dreams of salmon,

dance in their heads.

Last year at this time I posted the highlight of 2015 which was spending time with Mama-Griz and Her Mini-me in Glacier National Park in Montana.

This year the highlight of 2016 was spending time with the twenty six or so grizzlies and cubs in the Knight Inlet in Canada.

It is an absolute thrill to observe and photograph these magnificent creatures in the wild. I took so many photos in the inlet and thought I would share some more with you.

The grizzly bear is listed as a threatened species in the contiguous United States and endangered in parts of Canada.

Ursus Artos Californicus is the symbol of my state, California. In 1866, a grizzly described as weighing as much as 2,200 pounds was killed at The Holler, the biggest bear ever found in California. Today…

Glacier National Park is Blackfoot ancestral land. The Blackfoot people believe that grizzly bears can see into a human heart and read a person’s intentions. This is mama grizzly and her cub when we first encountered her on the trail and she went into high alert.

Here is mama after she looked into our hearts, approved our intentions, and took one of several naps. We spent several hours watching mama and cub, and have encountered bears every day since, both in Glacier and Waterton National Parks.

Here mama and cub are both relaxed enough to nurse in our presence!

She knew we were here, and looked at us regularly. We respected her space and never moved close enough to provoke any anxiety.

We watched her forage,

turn over rocks, hunt for rodents,

and fish.

We watched baby bear scratch his back on a little pine tree,

and we saw mama…