“The bees are so intent on harvesting nectar that I can pat them as they work. I can ruffle the yellow fur on a bumble’s thorax. I can stroke the black corduroy of her abdomen.”

Hannah Holmes, Suburban Safari: A Year on the Lawn, p. 40.

Can you imagine stroking a bee? That passage grabbed me.

I’m reading this book because the squirrel on its front cover caught Iggy’s eye as he browsed in a bookstore.

Luckily for my fantasy of publishing a squirrel book, squirrels are not the focus of her book. She does feed and discuss them, including a useful reference to my bible of squirrel behavior, North American Tree Squirrels. The concordance to Suburban Safari shows that squirrels are a significant focus of the book. However, by page 95, she has not made friends with the squirrels. In fact, they greet her approach by bolting for the trees. Hah-hah, I laughed to myself.

Hannah does, however, make friends with a chipmunk whom she nicknames Cheeky. Cheeky comes into her house to get sunflower seeds from her. That part of the relationship is nice. Holmes doesn’t seem to mind the dime-sized watery spots or dry pellets that Cheeky leaves as souvenirs.