A Few Things That Inspired Me This Month
Golden Jelly (Mastigias papua) at OdySea Aquarium
Bishi, our first Quaker Parrot.
Filtering Limoncello after being forgotten for a few months.
By Ceci Ellis
Some months, every source of inspiration points the same direction. This one didn't. Here's what's been rattling around in my head lately, in no particular order.
Jellyfish. The golden jellies at OdySea Aquarium got me more than anything else in the building: that orange-gold color drifting against deep blue water, moving with no urgency at all. I can't point to exactly what it is I'm comparing that to in my own life. I just know I stood at that tank far longer than I meant to, completely mesmerized.
UV feather photography. I found out birds can see UV light that's invisible to us, which means the birds I handle at Liberty Wildlife are almost certainly showing off patterns I've never seen. I already have a blacklight, though I'm still working out whether I'll need a filter or a modified camera, and I'm guessing a longer exposure to compensate for how dark the room will need to be. My own parrots are the test subjects: I've got feathers from Bishi, Little Sunny, and Big Sunny to start with, plus a tail feather from Lily and a couple more from Azul. If that works, I want to bring the setup to Liberty and try it on the feathers at the Non-Eagle Feather Repository as well.
Both it and its counterpart, the Eagle Feather Repository in Commerce City, Colorado, exist because of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which makes it illegal for most people to possess feathers or other parts of native bird species. Without a legal source, that law left Native Americans who need feathers for ceremonial purposes with few options besides poaching. These two repositories collect and distribute feathers free of charge.
Too many stories at once. First one I’m working on is Based on a True Story then I’ve plotted a sequel to A Ghost Like Me, and a reverse-rapture type of novel, and I've stopped trying to force myself to pick just one. Instead, I give each one a block of time, a morning, an afternoon, sometimes a whole Tuesday, and work on whichever one has my attention that day. When I lose momentum on one, I usually find it again in one of the others. It's less juggling than it sounds like.
And buried in that pile is an idea I can't stop turning over: what if we are the aliens? I saw a video that floated the idea and haven't been able to shake it since. I want the tree of knowledge of good and evil to actually be some kind of communications tower back to a mother ship, and the ape-like creatures who mess with it gain knowledge they weren't supposed to have and get expelled for it. I haven't worked out the mechanism yet. I just know I want to write it.
Finally, limoncello, that wonderful, easy-to-make, Italian aperitivof. Our usual lemon supplier cut her tree back last year, but a friend of my husband's showed up with around a hundred pounds to make up the difference. I started this year’s batch of limoncello using them, months ago and then, being ADHD, completely forgot about it. Tomorrow, I'm finally finishing it: straining, making and adding the simple syrup, then bottling. Due to state and federal regulations, selling homemade liqueurs is not an option, but gifting it is fine. I'll definitely be sending a bottle back to our lemon supplier(s).
