This tree is one of my neighborhood favorites at this time of year. It's growing in a rather downtrodden area near the railroad tracks, surrounded by a plywood fence, next to a pedestrian footpath. I've photographed it before.
Olga and I took the footpath yesterday morning specifically to check it out. I think it's actually a bit past its peak but it still looks amazing.
Speaking of trees, it appears someone's finally going to do something about the dead tree at the cemetery. They've put construction tape and cones around its base, perhaps so branches don't fall on people, and surely that can't be a long-term situation. They need to remove it, as well as the dead hedge around the chapel, which seems to have succumbed to box blight.
Yesterday I wrangled with our own landscaping here at home by giving the lawn its first mow of the season. It looks much better now. I also vacuumed (sort of the indoor equivalent of mowing, isn't it?) and took care of some errands.
And look!
The little Christmas (or Thanksgiving?) cactus cuttings mailed to me by Frances from Harpenden last November are finally, finally showing signs of growth. I wasn't entirely sure they were going to pull through, but at last, they've borne a new leaf.
Dave and I have been watching Adam Curtis' documentary series "Can't Get You Out of My Head," which is a fascinating if head-spinning account of social and political evolution (or devolution?) over the past 125 years or so. It expounds on Chairman Mao and his ambitious wife, the rise of the Sackler pharmaceutical empire and its mind-numbing products, the trend toward individualism in society, colonialism in the Middle East and the rise of the Islamic State, and more, all jumbled together in a giant salad bowl and presented as a visual feast. Curtis relies on the viewers to make the connections between these disparate forces and events, and the connections aren't always clear but, as I said, it's fascinating. (This is the same guy who made "HyperNormalisation," which Dave and I watched about a month ago.)
And what about the gigantic container ship blocking the Suez Canal? Isn't that a mess. This story, about the tiny canalside village with a close-up view of the crisis, is pretty interesting. Their situation reminds me of Mollie Wilmot, the Palm Beach socialite who lived with a derelict tanker in her backyard back in the mid-1980s -- although she and the Egyptian village are obviously at opposite ends of the economic spectrum.
Good to see that the cactus has sprouted ! I love watching my cuttings grow a new leaf and know that they will have rooted!
ReplyDeleteYes! I was relieved to see it finally growing! I knew it wasn't dead, so I was hopeful, but it seemed to take it an awfully long time. I guess it needed the brighter light of spring.
DeleteIt's rather instructive and indeed poetic to think of Manshiyet Rugola and the huge container ship bearing luxury goods bound for the western world. Rather like residents of any other impoverished African village looking up into the night sky and seeing a rocket ship bound for Mars.
ReplyDeleteIt's true -- there are so many people for whom the items on that ship are utterly out of reach.
DeleteI suppose it is a cherry tree of some kind. I think they are the early bloomers.
ReplyDeleteThe COVID crisis has led to a lot of governments and companies to look at supply chains and what happens if they are cut. Australia is very vulnerable. But who would have thought the Suez Canal would be blocked?
I wonder if the gamble shipping companies have taken by send ships via the Cape of Good Hope will pay off.
It looks like a cherry, though I'm no expert. I read somewhere that sending a ship around the Cape of Good Hope costs an additional $2,500 in fuel PER DAY! That seems like a heck of a cost to absorb.
DeleteWe have a similar tree in our backyard and someone told us it was a kind of cherry tree. Lovely sign of spring.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think it is a cherry. We have others here that haven't yet bloomed -- I don't know why this one is earlier.
DeleteYes, the Suez mess is one of those things fascinating to us from a distance, but I'm sure, maddening to those living it. I wonder which products will later have skyrocketing prices as a result.
ReplyDeleteWatch out for that Christmas cactus. I've had one for 45 years (yes, really), in spite of almost completely ignoring it and never repotting it, and now I've had it so long, I can't get rid of it. It would feel like dumping a member of the family.
What do you do with it when you go to Florida? Do you have a plant-carer? (I'm assuming it's up north.)
DeleteOh, your sweet little cactus!
ReplyDeleteIt's hard for me to wrap my mind around that stuck container ship. It's so monstrously huge! Makes me wonder why ships don't get stuck in there all the time. Perhaps they should call a midwife!
LOL -- that IS what's needed here! Someone's got to turn that baby!
DeleteIt's a heartbreaking juxtaposition, that village and that container ship, so little and so much, side by side.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the people in that village benefit at all from the canal. Like, do any of the people work on the canal somehow, or earn revenue from it? Probably not.
DeleteThe tree is a beauty! I was just thinking of that Palm Beach socialite when I was reading about the Suez mess. Yes, VERY different situations, but funny that I went there, too. I'm happy for you and your Christmas/Thanksgiving/Easter cactus. I've given up on those... until I decide to try again, of course.
ReplyDeleteIt is funny that we both thought of Mollie! Everyone admired how she handled that crisis with such generosity and aplomb. Of course, she could afford to!
DeleteThe "dead tree at the cemetery" sounds like the beginning of a poem. Where will it be laid to rest?
ReplyDeleteI saw a beautiful flowering tree the other day, its pink flowers blooming against the bluest of skies. I thought of you!
The parakeets, and probably other birds, like that dead tree, and for their sake I'm sorry to see it go. But it IS a hazard. If it were up to me I'd cut it down to the level of the ivy, but I'd leave the trunk up -- that ivy would be great for nesting birds.
DeleteI haven't read anything about the tanker, just seen the pics and headlines but I want to know how on earth it got crossways in the first place.
ReplyDeleteyep, me too, more work outside. I'm getting a day off though as it rained in the wee hours and it's too wet to do anything out there.
and that first picture is wonderful.
DeleteMy understanding is, it had something to do with a sandstorm. But people along the canal say the storm wasn't THAT bad, they've had worse, and I think the authorities are also considering human error.
DeleteI love when the flowering trees start to bloom. Hopefully, ours will bloom soon too. I hope you didn't disturb any bunny nests when you mowed your grass. Enjoy your day, hugs, Edna B.
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, there are no bunnies in our garden. Olga would make sure of that! We do keep parts of the garden wild to give cover to wild critters, though, which is why the foxes hang around.
DeleteI hadn't seen that story about the Suez Canal village so thanks for the link. It seems hard to imagine something like that happening.
ReplyDeleteI love that pink blooming tree. It looks like you had some nice weather for the weekend.
It's funny how the security services have told the villagers not to take pictures of the ship. I mean, the international press is there, it's not like no one's photographing it. So ridiculous!
DeleteThere are some excellent ideas from the mouth of kids on how to move that container ship: https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2021/03/27/suez-canal-ship-kids-solve-orig-jnd.cnn
ReplyDeleteMy nephew teaches 7yr olds and showed me a detailed plan with pulley ropes and stuff his students have done, they are now building a Lego model of it.
Wow! That's a pretty impressive way to use current events in the classroom!
DeleteWe have many of the pink trees too--but our sky hasn't been as blue lately. It is a beautiful contrast. Still, pink looks good with gray! I'm wondering how they're EVER going to unstick that huge ship. I hope there are creative minds working on the issue.
ReplyDeleteSounds like it will be a combination of dredging and catching the high tide.
DeleteOooh - I love the pink tree! We've got a lot of pink ones around here too. Such a pretty time of year.
ReplyDeleteIt really is. We have several types of blooming trees, so we have color from March until May.
DeleteI saw a purply-pink one and some white ones the other day in our town.
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Glad you're getting some color in Arizona, too!
DeleteI've always had a Christmas cactus. You have to be careful with light for them but they do grow and bloom .
ReplyDeleteI've been surprised by how well ours have grown and prospered.
DeleteJust spent the entire day watching "Can't Get You Out Of My head"- It's a man's world, the radical change, since the ideas have run out, may be to smash the patriarchy, put a woman in charge. Our only hope.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for it! We almost had it with Hillary. So close, and yet so disastrously far...
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