Cricket Muse

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Word Nerd: Gosh, it’s a Hawk

Photo by Chris Clark on Pexels.com When a book grabs my attention, I tend to go a smidge overboard in experiencing it. Such is the case with Helen Macdonald’s memoir about training a a goshawk she named Mabel. I am immersing myself in Macdonald’s H is for Hawk through her book, a BBC documentary about her training a different goshawk, and I will be ordering the film with Claire Foy based on the…

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From Dearth to Birth

As dedicated bird and squirrel (by default) fans we enjoy the variety of feathered (and furry) friends that visit our yard. Juncos, chickadees, doves, nuthatches, sparrows, robins are stock characters while seasonal guest visitors such as warblers, flickers, jays, goldfinches, hummingbirds, grosbeaks, and siskins drop in, adding both drama and entertainment to the landscape. Now and then a…

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Word Nerds: Run, you clever word run

Oxford English Dictionary editors recently revealed that “run” has indeed become the single word with the most potential meanings in all of English, boasting no fewer than 645 different usage cases for the verb form alone. No, I will not run the list, but here is the link for you to run over and peruse. Since you might run out of time reading all the definitions, this is merely a glance.…

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Reader Roundup: April 2026

April is a fickle month with on and off again weather. There were enough inclement days to rack up some serious reading time. April is also Poetry month, Shakespeare’s birthday, and an emphasis on libraries and librarians. James Herriot’s Treasury for Children by James Herriot image: Goodreads A lovely way to introduce young readers to the delightful stories of the world’s favorite Yorkshire…

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The Writer's Life: Got the Room to Write

April 23 is Shakespeare’s birthday, which falls around the time in my blog schedule in which I voice some thoughts about the writing life. I’m in the midst of reading different biographies of Shakespeare, while juggling a few writing projects. In the middle of all this I feel fortunate I have a room of my own in which to write, unlike some women writers my reading has uncovered. First of all,…

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How Cliché: All is Well with "W"

Well well, we are running out of alphabet and cliches. Fortunately there is a wellspring of “W” entries to peruse: Wait on hand and foot: dating back to the 1300s when servants and servitude was common, the expression implies serving a person completely, attending to their every need, often to an excessive or servile degree. Today the phrase is often dished with a serving of sarcasm. Walking…

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April Is…

As sayings go, I don’t think April is the cruelest month as much as I think it fickle. The indecision of committing to either a rainy day or a sunny one is a tad frustrating. Rain is lovely in many ways—giving life to the winter weary garden for one, instilling a domicile coziness, and the ion freshness, that petrichor essence. Alas, too much of a good thing happens after the third day of…

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Word Nerd: Guilty of Definitions

Collecting words is what makes a Word Nerd’s heart go skippety-skip and so it sheer delight to discover Susie Dent’s Guilty by Definition is essentially a picnic of vocabulary. The setting is a renowned dictionary establishment in Oxford (yes, it does ring a bell). It isn’t long before this band of erudite editors start sleuthing. Amateur detectives are not unique. What makes Dent’s book standout…

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Reading Roundup: March 2026

Tooting my reading horn 🎉I am amazed to report having chalked up 55 read books already! That is impressive, isn’t it? March picks were better than usual with 7 really good reads. My reading habit has increased tremendously since retiring. It’s gone beyond being a bibliophile. ’m a book junkie, it’s true. I need at least one book to read, two waiting, three I couldn’t resist from the freebie…

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How Cliché: Va-Va Voom

Though the end of the cliche alphabet draws near, there are still plenty of tired but true phrases to explore. Today’s focus is on “V” Vanish into thin air: to disappear suddenly Variety is the spice of life: experiencing the new and different can add meaning to one’s experience Vent your spleen: keeping anger held inside can have physical consequencesNOTE: way long ago, the spleen was once…

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Bard Bits: Spring

Having grown up in a town surrounded by the country, William Shakespeare was comfortable and familiar with the onset of spring. Since the 20th marks the beginning of spring, according to my Dollar Store calendar, here is WS’s tribute to spring in a poem appropriately titled “Spring.” When daisies pied and violets blueAnd lady-smocks all silver-whiteAnd cuckoo-buds of yellow hueDo paint the…

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Bookish Thoughts: Reading Fast Asleep

For me, reading a book involves holding a physical copy (preferably a hardcover) whilst sitting in my cozy window-side lounger or pillow plumped in bed. First preference is lounging in my hammock on an agreeable summer’s day. THE way to read a book The point here is I’m doing the work of assimilating the words, turning the pages, creating character voices as I progress through the book. I’m…

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Word Nerd: What's New?

Words are commodities that come and go in any language. Old words can take on new meanings. And some words get dropped, while others get inserted into the everyday lexicon. Below are some new entries to the dictionary. How many do you use? Or for that matter, how many do you see having validity? For ease of assimilating the words are corralled into categories: FANDOM Trekkies: fans of the Star…

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Reader Roundup: February 2026

Winter flung its last fling in February providing enough snow to cause much joy and celebration for those seeking a skication. No longer a slope aficionado sought solace by reading a few decent books with only a couple rating a good read. It’s difficult to find a book about Shakespeare that isn’t a good read. Having no remembrance of where I pick this up, I am glad to have found it on my…

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Absolute Lunacy

Solar eclipses seem to garner all the attention, yet lunar eclipses are so much easier to view since no special glasses are needed. The one downside is the lateness of the hour required to experience them. No problem. I had a plan in place.I was especially determined to watch this lunar eclipse because a)I only caught one planet out of the six from the previous night planetary alignment and…

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The Writer Life: Nope, but thanks

The writer life for me started back in the early eighties when I began submitting stories to various publications. The process back then was tedious compared to today. With no online presence (because of no Internet) finding sources usually came through newsletters or thumbing through the Writer’s Digest annual publication guide. Not much up-to-the-minute information. Finding a market meant…

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Bard Bits: Dusting off Bill

Yup, I’m a Shakespeare fan. I even reference my appreciation as a Bardinator, meaning I’ll be back for more in a determined manner (sans the accent). Some use the term Bardolator, but I can’t say I idealize Shakespeare. I’m still learning about him, hence my given term, since I keep coming back for more. Really real or not so real—that used to be my question But I used to think WS was a phoney…

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