Red Rose Tea, Birds and a Box Fan

It is finally heating up in the Willamette Valley. Not that I wanted it to get hot, but it had been cool and rainy from October well into June. Enjoyable, but I had wondered if there would be a summer. There is. It is overwhelmingly warm. We have the front door propped open with the dog kennel and a cheapo (though oddly made in the USA) box fan on top of it. 

We fill a giant glass jug with Red Rose and ice every morning and by the next day we need to do it all again. For some reason I love this tea and this tea alone though my current financial straits have prevented me from branching out toward some organic black tea (this will be done eventually, though by then it may not be hot enough to warrant it).

Bird and I went to EE Wilson today to prepare for her upcoming research project regarding mature forest birds in early sucessional forests. EE Wilson is run by the Fish and Wildlife folks, and has some interesting history (good overview at the attached link) .  There we saw a number of birds; osprey, herons, orange crowned warbler, bushtits, pied billed grebe... as well as some great plant life, butterflies, dragonflies, and deer. 

The rest of this day has largely been spent prostrate in front of the fan. I'm about 200 pages into Wharton's The Fruit of the Tree. Originally published in 1907 (after The House of Mirth) this book seems to have been ill received by the public and critics alike, but I am enjoying it quite a bit. It centers on a mill in the North Eastern US (I believe New England though others claim New York). I don't know how useful it will be for my attempt at ecocritical analysis of Wharton, but it is a good read.

On the topic of Wharton I am trying to assemble a list of any novel or story (or poem) of hers which contains suicide or attempted suicide. Any help is welcome. So far I have:

The House of Mirth

The Custom of the Country

Ethan Frome