Welcome to Litsy!

As well as the heritage breed soay sheep 🐏 and replica Bronze and Iron Age roundhouses 🛖 at Flag Fen, they do have a small selection of books in the visitors' centre, so I picked up a couple by two of my favourite TV archeologists: Tamed by Alice Roberts, who unaccountably hasn't including cats in her list of ten species 🤷🏻‍♀️ (but I'm kvetching), and Paths to the Past by Francis Pryor, who actually discovered and excavated the Flag Fen site.

Today I learned that birds and reptiles can isolate infections in a single part of the body instead of the spread that often happens in mammals. I want to go read about how that works now, but I guess my theory would be a different lymphatic system? Though no clue how they would avoid spread through the blood stream... If someone finds out before I do, let me know!

(Note that I studied immunology as part of my degree, am interested in *detail*.)

Absolutely fascinating, compelling book! My mind was blown over and over again. Did you know that termites don‘t actually digest wood?! They chew it up and bring it back to their mounds to be digested by fungus, and then the termites consume what the mushrooms leave! Amazing.

Photo courtesy my husband, since I spotted but failed to photograph the tiny mushrooms on this tree.

All over the place. Medical insurance headaches that are already negatively impacting my kids. Over an hour trying to figure out that my daughter can‘t go to her scheduled appointment with the specialist tomorrow. I have been fighting insurance companies since my oldest was born over 28 years ago. I‘m so tired.

On the good side, my youngest son enjoyed the summer reading kickoff and I won for best speaker at Toastmasters.

#mentalhealthmonday

Half past seven on Daphne Major.

#firstlinefridays

Enjoying this so far. In odd synchronicity, it made me more curious about the papers behind this article (which I need to look into) which suggests we're finding evidence there has never been a mass extinction: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2481371-theres-growing-evidence-the-big-fiv...

This book, of course, is pretty certain that there was!

Went to the beach with the kids today and I took the wrong book. 😭 😭 😭 I took one I‘d already read.

The weather is gloomy, but the cool feels nice to this middle-aged afab body. I moved away from the desert at exactly the right time. :)

How is the weather in your parts and what is your fave beach/park read?

#summerreading
#beachlife

My 16yo and I have agreed on a reading challenge: We will each read 20 pages a day of On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. If we do that, we will complete the book before we leave on our trip to the Galápagos Islands in a few weeks. And this (somehow?) will enhance our trip. At page 206, am I having regrets? Perhaps.

New bookstack! ☀️ What is everyone reading this long weekend?

Well, I think this is my winner for April. Fascinating, well-written, and a joy to read.

#readingbracket
#bookbracket
#ReadingBracket2025