Derik Badman's Journal

• The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson, both depressing and optimistic climate sci-fi
• Something else at the beach?
• Tout Va Bien
• Started Babylon 5 (Edit: 2023-01-02 gave up somewhere in season 2)

The swallows were out above the church this morning when I took my walk. To me, this signals the beginning of autumn, as they don't seem to congregate there in summer mornings (unless, perhaps they are just there earlier in the morning).

Finally saw two chipmunks at the same time on the porch; I had been wondering how many there were and assumed there wasn't just one. Probably there are even more. I watched the two closely for awhile but could not find any way to differentiate them, they are to my eye identical.

Last week, I finally saw one of the chipmunks jump into a hole in the yard. It's not far from the porch so must be where he keeps going after stuffing his cheeks with seed on the porch. Yesterday when I walked down that way, I saw one run into the downspout. He sat there looking out at me from within it, making his little chip chip noise, I assume to warn the others that I was near.