In Praise of Chinese Cabbage

. . .or Napa, as the grocery store calls it. I was preparing to cut up a few leaves to add to my lunch time ramen when the sunlight hit them and I had to take some pictures.

A delightful bed for the Fairy Queen-- or maybe one of the Castle People.

I'm entranced by the patterns on the leaves.

All this beauty-- and it's so delicious, raw or briefly cooked. I think that the rest of this head is destined for a salad with an Asian type citrus dressing. Crunch! Crunch!

 

A Sweet Moment

Me and my dad are going to my school's Father/Daughter Dance!

We are both dressed up.

Mama is taking pictures.

I am pretty excited.

 

WTAF!!!

       

Dear Sen./Rep. ____,

What is happening to my beloved country? Pentagon briefing on China for the Richest Man in the World? Deportation without due process? Invocation of the Alien and Sedition Act when we aren't actually at war? 

If this scoff-law regime continues unchecked, our freedom and our democracy are doomed. Where are the checks and balances?

I learned in 8th grade Civics that our federal government was designed as a three-part instrument-- Legislative (that's you) to make laws; Executive to enforce laws; and Judicial to interpret laws. 

That's not happening. We are being governed by Sharpie--Executive Orders (and photo ops) pouring out of the Oval Office.  The Legislative Branch, (in the power of the bobble-headed GOP) seems to be sitting on its collective hands. As for the Judicial Branch, the current regime has declared itself above the law. 

What five  things did YOU do last week to uphold the Constitution?

Slow Horses

                    

My older son reminded me that I needed to read the Slough House series from the beginning. I downloaded the audiobook--which is excellent--but quickly realized I needed to see words on a page to fix the various names and places in my head.

So I alternated between listening and reading--and it worked well. There were subtleties I might have missed in either form but combining the two was completely delightful.

Wry, dry humor and an ensemble cast of interesting folks with a past, this is a kind of spy story new to me. A gang of discredited MI5 spooks are the slow horses, condemned to serve out their careers at Slough House, doing  busywork until they quit from frustration--or die.

But there's so much else going on--plots within plots and if you blink, you may miss something important. That's why the reading/listening approach worked so well for me.

I am looking forward to diving into the rest of the series. Plus, there's a television series, starring Gary Oldman, to look forward to.

There's an excellent, more comprehensive review   HERE.

Vernal Equinox

                                   

And there it is--rising smack dab in the middle of our Eastern horizon. A brief moment, then the sun continues its journey to the north--our left.

Where will we all be at the Summer Solstice? Or at the Autumnal  Equinox or the Winter Solstice?

With our world in distress, there's something comforting to me in the roll of the seasons.

What Is Wrong With These People?

Now the power-mad regime is scrubbing mention of the Navajo Code Talkers from government websites, along with notable firsts  in the military for women and people of color. Heaven forbid our country's history should record anyone who is not a straight white male.

If you wondered how fragile the ego in the White House is . . .

It's not funny. It's downright Orwellian as they erase and  rewrite history. 

And DOGE continues its wrecking ball attack on all sectors of government, cutting jobs willy nilly with no thought for the human repercussions and the destruction of agencies that serve the interests of ordinary people--rather than billionaires.

 

Irrational Exuberance?

 

A Closer Look

My eye was caught by some lichen growing on the wooden top of some wind chimes . . . and I went forth in search of more.

They seem to love rocks and wood. 

What are these things anyway? I probably once knew but I went to Mr. Google to refresh my memory.                                                           

                        

Well, there's a lot to know. Lichen is a symbiotic between a fungus and either an alga or a cyanobacterium (a type of bacteria.) And there are well over 18,000 species of lichen, growing all over the world. Lichen provides food for man and beast, dyes, fibers, medicines, and more. Fascinating stuff -- I went down the web's rabbit hole and was amazed at how much there is to know about these things--a lifetime wouldn't be enough.

And then there are mosses-- but perhaps I'll save that for another day.

 



 

So Much Spring

 

Breaking Through

Signs

Signs of the season -- John's touching up the paint on the blue benches . . .

 

The early solid yellow daffs are joined by these bi-colors . . .

 

And Brer Snake is back, looking  skinny.

And this below is what greeted my eyes as I took our tax stuff to the preparer (another sign of spring.). I remember when this was a wooded mountainside. I know that people have to have places to live, but damn! Couldn't they have left some more trees?

 

Spring Shadows

Oops! This was meant for tomorrow. Consider this Thursday's post.

 

Excellent and Unfortunately All Too Relevant

 

I am a serious consumer of

audio books. I mentioned recently that I was listening to Michener's The Source-- such a good book but in light of all that's going on in the so-called Holy Land these days, I began to find it too grim for bed time listening.

So I decided to shift my attention to ancient Rome and downloaded Robert Grave's I, Claudius. I've read it several times, beginning when I was in high school. It was one of a few books in the house and at the time, it seemed a bit racy.

I also saw the TV version but found it difficult to follow.

This audio version, however, is perfect. The reader is a delight to listen to, and somehow, over the course of many hours, it was easy to keep track of the various characters. Listening was compelling.

Except for one thing. The novel shows how Rome

sank from a republic to a dictatorship, culminating in the rule of insane, depraved Caligula. Senators had the choice of assenting to his whims or being banished or executed.

Somehow it all seemed familiar.