When I'm asked to recommend science-fiction or list favorite books, C. J. Cherryh's Chanur series generally comes up pretty quickly. They were my transition books from talking animals to science-fiction. (I still love talking animals, but there's a lot more science-fiction out there.) And, I always describe them as having interesting, complicated, inter-alien politics. I remember the alien interaction being intricate and subtle. However, I was fourteen when I read them, and I don't re-read most books. So, I haven't read them since.

I was talking to one of the people I recommended Chanur's Legacy to recently. He didn't find it nearly as complex as I remember them being. In fact, our discussion leads me to wonder if my utter fascination with the Chanur series (besides having to do with my love of talking animals) might partly be an artifact of my age when I read them. At fourteen, I wasn't very good at understanding people. (A large part of why I preferred talking animals.) So, a lot of the books I enjoyed back then had somewhat cardboard characters, and I failed to read a number of books with truly developed and subtle characters. (Two examples: The Left Hand of Darkness and Pride and Prejudice.)

So, I find it completely believable that the Chanur books are less complex than I thought. In fact, it sounds like I may have liked them for exactly the reason that I didn't like Ursula K. LeGuin and Jane Austen. I wasn't good at understanding people, and C. J. Cherryh lays out a very simple, detailed road-map of what's going on in her characters' minds. She explains exactly why each character behaves as she does and how all the different characters' choices add up. Authors like LeGuin and Austen assume a basic understanding of human nature; C. J. Cherryh teaches it.

Of course, this is all conjecture based on someone else's opinions about Chanur's Legacy. I won't know how well my theories hold up unless I revisit some of Cherryh's books myself. And, as I said, I'm not good at re-reading.

The strangest thing happened. We've been getting lightning storms this week, so, at first, I didn't think anything of the flashes. Of course, it was odd that they were coming from the nursery. Anyway, Elaine wanted to go play in her room -- she's working on training the butterflies to perform this aerial ballet she's composing -- and I thought I might watch. You know, see how the performance is coming along. But, as we headed into the hall, the flashing intensified. When I opened the door to her room, we could see the grape vine... It was sizzling -- like the sound of water hitting a hot frying pan. And the new grapes were lit up like X-mas lights. The whole room flashed several times, blinding us, and before we could see again the whole vine was gone!

The vines in Elaine's arbor have been growing at a fantastic rate. They've wound themselves entirely around the crib railing -- as I hoped they would -- but, then they took off, creeping along the ceiling and floor. In fact, they're threatening to take over and decorate the entire house. I can think of worse things than a house completely clothed in grape vines, but it's still kind of surreal.

Anyway, I figure I must have picked out some kind of unusual variety of grape, since grapes don't usually act like this. I've been trying to do some research into what kind of plants usually behave in this surreal fashion, and I happened upon this great book: A Field Guide to Surreal Botany. It hasn't helped me figure out what's going on with this grape vine at all, but there are some other fascinating plants in there that I might want to check out and add to my green menagerie.

The Thuringian Shade-tree and Time Cactus are two of my favorites, but I think they'd both be a little dangerous with a young 'un around. The Kitty Willow and Avian Trumpetflower, however, would make beautiful and highly entertaining additions to anyone's garden.

And those are just a few of the amazing plants I learned about from this great book!

Today I am toothstrong!

Elaine's room is certainly very peaceful with little white butterflies flying about, perching on the grape vines. Let's hope the vine starts producing grapes soon, so the arbor can serve its purpose.

Elaine can walk with only one adult hand to help her balance now. As a reward, we thawed out the packages of lady bugs and butterflies -- yellow lady bugs and cabbage white butterflies. The grape vine is growing pretty quickly, despite the heat, so I figure it'll support the little critters okay. I'm not handling the heat quite as well as the grapes...

It's amazing the difference three degrees can make. I'll be fine while the house is 80, but, once it hits 83, I feel like my brains are made of ice cream and they're melting. Fortunately, we keep a lot of ice cream in the freezer, so I was able to replenish my cranial supplies. Today my brains are french silk and raspberry cheesecake. Tomorrow they may be cookie dough and banana.

Trudy's a deadbeat. She had the whole weekend to get the grape shoots planted, and she never lifted a paw in their direction. The leaves were starting to look wilty this morning, so I just went ahead and planted them myself. I coiled the vines around the crib as far as they would go, but they're not very long yet. So, it doesn't look like much. But it will.