Cat Out of Context

Yesterday was a much-needed quiet day at home! I did laundry, I read blogs and I made substantial headway in "Flashlight," which I am enjoying a lot. I know nothing about Korea and Japan and the relations between the two, especially as they affected families living there (and immigrant families in the USA), so it's opening a window on an experience that I have never really imagined.

I pass this tree on my walks home from work. I took the picture above on my phone, and it's OK, but I'd hoped to get one with my good camera. But on Thursday, when I took my camera to work, the house had all its rubbish bins stacked in front and more rubbish on the front walkway. I had a crazy moment when I considered moving their bins aside to take the picture, but then I caught myself. I do not need to be moving other people's garbage cans. In the USA you'd get shot for that. (And a lot less!)

Here's an unfortunate gardening situation that I had to rectify. You know I hate killing anything, but in this case it was necessary. There are three burdock plants in this photo, including the uprooted one in the center. Burdock plants get huge, and right in the middle of this trio is a hollyhock. I knew three burdocks would totally overwhelm the hollyhock, so I pulled up the one that was in front -- which was growing in the lawn, anyway, and I wasn't thrilled about that. I've left the other two for now and I think if I keep the leaves trimmed I can let them survive while still keeping the hollyhock alive.

In the afternoon I went to have a massage, which I haven't done in a long, long time. (Not since Tenerife last November, I think.) It was fabulous, of course, and then look who I ran into on my rubbery-legged walk home:

It's Pale Cat! He was perched on this column next to someone's front garden on the next block. I wonder if that's his house? If so, he has quite a wide territory to wander, because we're not only one more street over, but we're a long block north of where he was in this photo -- and as you know from my wildlife videos, he's always showing up in our back garden. (I'm saying "he" because I've pretty much decided he's a male, though I could still be wrong.)

Anyway, it's the first time I've seen him not in our garden, so that was kind of funny. It's like running into your barber at the grocery store, or your doctor at the wine shop -- you can't help but do a double-take because the person (or cat, in this case) is out of context!

Moai

I passed this house on Tuesday when I was walking around the neighborhood near my dentist's office. The Easter Island moai on the windowsills caught my eye right away. I wonder if this person has any connection with Easter Island (aka Rapa Nui) or if they're just fascinated, as many of us are, from afar?

And now I'm on Spring Break! None too soon, either. I got annoyed at my boss yesterday when she made another late-afternoon request and I realized once again that it really is just time for me to go. I am so done with that job.

I had a series of weird dreams last night involving some of my coworkers. I had scheduled time on the calendar to do some kind of AI training, and there was discussion about that, and then suddenly I was at a dining room table and I moved a centerpiece and a pair of hummingbirds flew out. "Awww, they built a nest there!" said my co-worker Martha. And then I woke up, and wondered what on earth I'll dream about when my three remaining workdays are over. Hopefully less calendar scheduling or AI and more hummingbirds.

Pam Bondi is finally out at the Justice Department, and I can't say that's surprising. (I've written before about my two degrees of separation from her.) That is going to be an impossible job for anyone, because Trump and the MAGAts want to prosecute people who have done nothing wrong. Ever since the chants of "Lock her up!" he's made promises to jail Democratic leaders, and darn it, the law just won't cooperate. It will be interesting to see if a new attorney general is any more successful in bringing charges, never mind making them stick.

Meanwhile, I hope Bondi writes a book, because that could be entertaining.

I'm looking forward to a restful day and making more of my way through "Flashlight," which I haven't touched since last weekend!

Unremarkable

The magnolias are just about done for the season. This one managed to push out one final flower before getting on with the business of making leaves.

Yesterday was unremarkable. I had a dentist's appointment on Tuesday, but that was also unremarkable (which is a good thing). I am feeling unremarkable so this will be an unremarkable blog post.

The only interesting thing I did yesterday was take my old computer to work in order to discard it. I asked a co-worker, a tech guy, to remove the hard drive -- which turned out to be a computer chip rather than the spinning disk I've seen in previous machines. I destroyed the chip and gave the empty shell of the computer to the tech office to recycle. I wanted to get rid of it while I still had a method for easy disposal.

My persistent cough has been bothering me again, which I'm not happy about. I've toyed with going back to the doctor but I'm going to let nature take its course for a little while and see what happens. Both my boss and a co-worker have been sick this week, and working as usual, which annoys the heck out of me. (GO HOME if you're sick! Don't give it to the rest of us!) Anyway, my cough doesn't (yet) seem like a passing illness -- it's more my usual chronic problem. I've been back on lansoprazole to control stomach acid so hopefully that will help it calm down.

Today is our final workday before Spring Break. Woo hoo! I'm off all next week, and when I return to work the following week, I'm only there three days before it's sayonara for good. Next week will be a foretaste of the life to come!

Flowers and Faucet

Here's some more of what's blooming in the garden right now! The foamflower (Tiarella) above is having a good spring...

...and one of our feathery parrot tulips has appeared. It's ironic these are called parrot tulips, because often either birds or squirrels behead the flowers before they can fully open. This one is hanging on pretty well so this year we've been lucky (so far).

This is Lamium, a type of dead nettle, packed with flowers and buds.

And this is our broom plant, not quite the usual bright yellow variety but a more subtle hybrid. I've learned that gorse, which looks similar, has spines, while broom does not -- in case anyone ever asks you the difference in a trivia competition.

I got interviewed by a First Grade class yesterday, which was fun. It was sort of a bookend to the interviews I did when I first started this job -- though this time I wasn't teaching them about how to interview, I was just answering their questions. First graders ask funny questions, mostly focused on favorite things. I was asked my favorite food, my favorite candy, my favorite color, my favorite animal and my favorite bird. I must say, I have never stopped to contemplate my favorite bird. I told them I like the parakeets that visit our garden.

We also got a new kitchen faucet yesterday, kind of out of the blue. Last week our management company did another inspection of our flat, following the redecorating that was done several months ago, and the inspector noticed that our kitchen faucet dripped. It has dripped for ages. Almost three years ago, I had a handyman come in to fix it, but he said it would have to be replaced and we just never got around to it. Well, now it's done, and it's a nice improvement. The little things make a difference.

Seventh Grade Social Studies

This is an empty shop I pass on Finchley Road as I walk to and from work. It has a blue film over the window, which is responsible for the color of the photo. Looks like there might be some water intrusion problems there in the back! Maybe that's why the place hasn't been rented.

Not much news around here. A normal workday yesterday -- I pulled a bunch of books for the 7th Graders, who are doing projects on the historic revolutions in France, Russia, Haiti and the USA, as well as Indian independence. A very global focus!

The only thing I specifically remember about my 7th Grade Social Studies class is my teacher, Ms. Nichols, and the comments the kid sitting behind me would make about her. They were rude enough that I wouldn't want to repeat them here. You might say he had a crush on her, but that makes it sound much more innocent than it actually was. I bet that kid is a sex offender now.

Oh, I also remember a project I did with another student about the Civil War battles of Bull Run. My family had visited the battlefield while we stayed with my grandmother up in Washington, D.C., so they were at the forefront of my mind. I was also going through a period of fascination with the Civil War, having just read "Gone With the Wind." So when we had to choose something to study, that's what I came up with, and a kid named Mark was my study partner. As I remember, we made a hand-drawn filmstrip using transparencies that detailed the battles. I did the research and he did the drawings. I still remember his bubble-headed little stick men shooting each other.

I have to go to the dentist this morning for a cleaning. My boss quipped yesterday that I will have lots of time for these sorts of things after I retire on the 15th -- the unspoken question being, "Why do you have to go to the dentist now, and miss one of your last mornings of work?" I told her this appointment was made ages ago, which is partly true, though it was shifted by a few days just recently. I'm allowed to take care of my teeth, dammit.

Honesty and Rubber Tree No. 5

I was happy to see that our honesty plants are blooming. I like honesty and find it so cheerful -- I have two that took root of their own accord in a pot of lilies, and I think they're all struggling a bit because there are three plants in a single pot. (Hey, I didn't tell them to grow there!) The honesty will eventually die back naturally, though, and I don't think the lilies are in danger.

(This is a different pot of lilies from the one colonized by toadflax. I am not very diligent about weeding.)

Here's my latest plant rescue project. This rubber tree has been sitting on a windowsill outside the Lower School library for several months, looking sadder and sadder. I'd water it every now and then -- it always felt dry as a bone -- but no one seemed to claim ownership, and although I asked around I couldn't find anyone who knew where it came from or who it belonged to. So, with the encouragement of my Lower School colleagues, I brought it home.

It needs fresh soil and it also has thrips, I think. I gave it a good rinse and left it outside in the garden, hoping that exposure to our chilly spring temperatures, and predators like ladybugs, will knock back the insects naturally. Check back in a few weeks or months!

Incidentally, this is our fifth rubber tree. I have a problem.

Here's what my teasel seedlings, plucked from the seed head, look like now. Two of them died but four are still with me. I'm going to let them get a little bigger and then I'll plant them out. I also have zinnia, cosmos and sunflower seeds that I got free during the past few months with our Gardener's World magazine subscription at work, and I need to plant those at some point.

Yesterday was a very domestic day. I vacuumed the house, cleaned the refrigerator and did my normal weekly houseplant maintenance. After such a busy week it felt good to have a day of restful routines! I even made progress on reading "Flashlight" -- I think I'm about a third of the way through and I'm liking it.

Unity!

Well, I made it to the "No Kings" march yesterday, only here in England (for obvious reasons) it wasn't called "No Kings." Instead it was the "Together Alliance March Against the Far Right," which is a mouthful but the idea was simple enough: Unity. There were people there representing all sorts of issues, from climate change to education to workers' rights to Palestinian liberation to LGBTQ+. As the sign above says, we mustn't allow the right-wingers to divide and segment us, and instead we must stand united against the likes of Nigel Farage and Donald Trump.

There were Ukrainian flags, Palestinian flags, Iranian flags and rainbow flags. The right-wingers like to point out that some of these issues and identities are opposed to one another -- for example, religious extremists in the Middle East don't treat LGBTQ+ people very well, to put it mildly. But the evil there is the extremism, not the people of the Middle East.

I personally was a little uncomfortable with some of the pro-Palestinian rhetoric, the chants of "from the river to the sea" and that kind of thing. I support Israel's right to exist. But I also support Palestinian statehood. I don't see why those have to be contradictory positions.

Basically, I'm for any social progress that allows people to live in freedom as they wish -- any people -- and freedom for one group lifts us all up. People who are free and empowered are less likely to discriminate against others. Right?

So as the signs say, don't let the right divide us!

I started the march at the Green Park tube station, where I emerged onto Piccadilly and began taking pictures. I stuck a little rainbow flag in my hat and walked from there through Piccadilly Circus and Pall Mall, past Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall toward Parliament. Below are some photos. I usually set a maximum of about eight photos for my posts, but in this case you're getting 12 because I couldn't narrow them down any more. Plus a video at the end!

These two were American, and we exchanged some short lamentations about the state of our country at the moment. No points for spelling, but her heart's in the right place.

There was a touch of anti-Brexit sentiment, Brexit being not only incredibly damaging, but also Farage's pet issue for years and the one that lifted him to prominence.

The mysterious Red Rebels, from the climate change organization Extinction Rebellion, made an appearance.

This guy broke out his "pussy hat," which I had to admire! I always wanted one of those.

In the middle of all the darkness and toxic masculinity that seems to be afflicting modern politics, it's great to be reminded how many like-minded, reasonable, freedom-loving people are out there.

The mix of issues did cause some questions. I heard two boys, about twelve years old, quizzing a woman holding a rainbow flag about the reasons for the march. "I'm just so confused!" one told her. But like I said, it was all about unity. (Those same boys gave me a fist bump as they passed me.)

Here's a video to show you some of the atmosphere. It was all overwhelmingly positive, though you'll see one person challenging a guy who's carrying a British flag down the parade route. I'm not sure what his intentions were -- maybe he wants to reclaim it from the ultra-nationalists? I didn't see any right-wing counter-protesters at all, though I suppose they were around somewhere.