Speaking of that, do you have any idea why the Soviet Union banned, “A Wrinkle in Time”?
No. Might have something to do with the mind controlling thingie on the dark planet..
How’d you get to know so much about nature stuff?
Curiosity? Hear a bird call and ask "whazzit?", see a flower, plant, tree and ask the same question. Mom was a school teacher? I don't know, just have this mixed bag of trivial factoids on multitudes of disconnected subjects collected over decades of existence, none of which will make me a bazillionare...
And I let the purple loosestrife live (an invasive species) as long as it stays in that field over there but ruthlessly obliterate Japanese Knotweed (an invasive species) no matter where it shows up. And I keep the feral resident outdoor rodent control crew fed so they stay in the area (but really would like to nab the female and have her plumbing modified because it's hard to give away kittens, since we have already taken the lone survivor of one of last years litters into the indoor rodent control program..)
And I've given up trying to keep the salamanders out of the basement. Or the frogs that sooner or later get caught in the sump. And bears don't like full strength ammonia poured on their picnic basket, er, garbage can. And Bambii won't eat daffodils, probably because they don't like the affects of an overdose of atropine..
And turkey buzzards have red heads and light gray underwings but the more aggressive black vultures are - black. But at least the turkey buzzard will wait till you're dead before dining, while the black vulture is known to snatch live prey. So the turkey buzzards can sun themselves unmolested on the dome of the silo but blackbuzzards get plinked with the bb gun as a means of welcoming them to the neighborhood.
And the Eastern Corn Snake is still around. It left its shed out behind the milkhouse to let me know. And I think the blue heron (and probably its friends) have managed to consume the goldfish that were in the pond - last trip to the beach, er, pond did not produce any goldfish sightings (grandkids were disappointed..) But we have lots of goldfinches. And mockingbirds. And hummingbirds (though I think they might have all headed south by now, Mrs. NoC still keeps one feeder out there for any stragglers.)
And pretty black with white stripped kittycats of the pole variety. And north american marmots that are distant relatives of Punxsutawney Phil. I think the resident chupacabra has passed since it has not been spotted this year.
And raspberry bushes that tend to take care of themselves (mostly because the bambii prune them, albeit in an unscientific manner.) And ground cherries which never seem to get ripe before the frost kills them. But then frost tends to kill back all of the nightshade family (you know, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, sweet and chili peppers, tobacco, petunias, deadly..) And honeysuckle.
And I hate ticks.