I can't resist another post featuring our coleus plants. They're so colorful and lush. I don't know why I don't grow these all the time.
I'm sure you've seen the news about the UK lawmaker who was murdered yesterday while meeting with constituents in an apparent act of terrorism. That's certainly the big news in the UK at the moment. Shocking, and coming not too many years after the murder of another MP by a right-wing extremist, it has shown that these representatives need better security. It's a shame that they can no longer safely meet with the people they represent without a posse of police alongside them, but that seems to be where we are these days.
I've said it before and I'll say it again -- the world has gone crazy. Or maybe it was always crazy. I imagine people in the late 1960s must have felt the same, amid the assassinations and the Vietnam War and the fallout from the Civil Rights era in the USA, as well as the Prague Spring and Biafran War and all the other world conflicts of the time. Whenever I start despairing about current events I try to remember that we've been here before. We've even had pandemics before. None of this is really new, except that now we have the added power of the Internet stirred into the mix.
Our mask policy at work is still scheduled to change as of Monday, to one of voluntary rather than mandatory masking. This is interesting given that England is apparently experiencing "sky-high Covid rates" (in the words of The Guardian) and boosters are still rolling out, as well as vaccines for young people. I still plan to remove my mask when I'm alone at my desk but I think I'll wear it when I'm around people -- although how effective is that when exhaled droplets can stay suspended in the air for long periods of time, as has been reported? I know some of my co-workers are nervous about the kids no longer masking, particularly, and I wonder if I owe it to them, especially, to keep my mask on. I want to be sensitive to their concerns but I really feel like I must get that thing off my face for at least part of the day. Aaaaaargh! Mask ethics!
Anyway, I did not intend for this post to be so somber. Sorry about that.
On a more positive note, I'm hoping to do some gardening this weekend, getting some foxgloves into the ground and doing some more autumn pruning and trimming. I have to ration the trimming because the council will only pick up two bags of garden waste per week. Any more than that and they leave it behind!
The plant photos are gorgeous as always.
ReplyDeleteThanks, E!
DeleteI think you are doing the right thing with the mask. What you do has to be comfortable for a good while yet. It is not natural human behaviour, and I haven't missed getting a cold or 'flu but eventually it has to be masks off.
ReplyDeleteThe coleus are good value.
Strange that I haven't heard the word assassination in relation to the murder. Assassination can't be just a word used in the US. I did hear an anti terrorism squad is investigating. Is there anything to read into that?
It's true -- why isn't it being called an assassination? I don't think there's any debate that it was an apparent terrorist attack.
DeleteI love coleus and your photos demonstrate why. I’ve been bemoaning the state of the world and have to remind myself that I was doing so as a teen and ever since. I don’t know if it’s any worse than what I remember or if it’s simply the constant visibility we now have. But it’s easy to get down.
ReplyDeleteI just need to "unplug" from the news!
DeleteI only have to remember the low points of the 1960s and early 1970s (and I do, as I wasn't into drugs) to acknowledge the kind of despair I felt during the period. The Cuban Missile crisis, Berlin Wall (lived in Germany when it went up), JFK, RFK, MLK assassinations, cities burning, the Vietnam War (loved ones who died there), tumult and divisiveness across the US, gas shortages, Watergate. It was a difficult time to be a teen and young adult. And so it is with every generation...no such thing as a decade without issues...a world without war. And still, we put one foot in front of the other, try not to despair, and do our best not to contribute to the problems, but seek solutions where we can. At least, that is the choice I make (most days).
ReplyDeleteIt's easy when we look back to forget how tumultuous things seemed at times -- when they were actually happening and we didn't know how it would all turn out. As you said, we have to be part of the solution, don't we?
DeleteThe world HAS always been crazy, but it's louder now because of the internet.
ReplyDeleteI still wear a mask at work, though some co-workers have opted not to, but even if it stops e from getting a cold or flu, I'm in.
Thanks for the coleus. It's a bright spot in the garden, isn't it?
Yeah, the Internet definitely amplifies it all -- although the Internet is just a passive thing and I have to remember I can disconnect from it if I want to!
DeleteI was born in 1946 and through my life things got better and better but are now sadly declining back to where things were. It's not the world that's mad it's the people runnning it and greed is behind everything.
ReplyDeleteBriony
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I agree, Briony. The world would be a different place if we had income distribution more like we did in the 1950s and '60s, with a solid middle class and less wealth concentrated at the top.
DeleteYour coleus pics are stunning! The colors are so brilliant and beautiful!
ReplyDeleteWith the way this world is going ... I remind myself and others ... This is the 21st Century for Christ's sake!
It boggles the mind to know we are going backwards rather then forward! SMH at the ignorance being initiated and, for the most part, tolerated!
I feel the same way. It seems like we as a society peaked in our commitment to progress and equality in the 1970s, and since then we've retreated into self-interest and profiteering.
DeleteThe colors in the coleus remind me of my favorite bark cloths. Those rich greens and magentas.
ReplyDeleteI was shocked to see the news about the murder of the lawmaker yesterday. Even in America that would be so shocking. Yes, it does seem as if the world has gone crazy but as Mary said in her comment, when hasn't it? I, too, remember the times she mentioned. I can recall, especially after MLK's and Bobby Kennedy's assassinations that really, the world was in absolute chaos. I believe our mistake is often that we expect humans to act in a rational way and sometimes we are just spectacularly wrong.
The coleus leaf patterns WOULD make great bark cloth! I think 1968 will always be remembered as an especially traumatic year, when the whole culture seemed unmoored.
DeleteI wonder too if the world is really any more dangerous as it has ever been, it's just that now we hear about all of it everywhere. I do think the US has developed a deep sickness in it's soul. I suppose it was always there but it seems to be festering now. love the coleus, such intense colors. have you thought about just making a compost pile in the corner of the garden instead of bagging up the garden waste to be picked up?
ReplyDeleteI think the Internet does damage in the same way it helps a lot of people -- by knitting together communities among otherwise isolated individuals. This is good when it gives marginalized groups a voice, but bad when those marginalized groups include, for example, white supremacists.
DeleteWe haven't really tried composting. We don't have the space. I do dump raked leaves and some cuttings in the back of the garden in the wildlife area, but we produce way too much rubbish to put it all back there.
Good that we have gardening to help keep our mind off major problems. I think we've always had the wars and lunatics but now we have a media that tells everything and keeps the pot boiling. An old reporter like you may disagree with me.
ReplyDeleteNo, actually, I agree with you. I think the 24-hour news cycle is inherently unhealthy. Oh for the days when we had only periodic news broadcasts in the morning, at noon, in the evening and at night, and in between went about our own business!
DeleteI saw that news yesterday about the stabbing death of a lawmaker. The murderous violence is everywhere these days, relentless and cruel. Has it always been like this? Maybe. A planet with 8 billion people is pretty different from a planet with only 2.6 billion (in 1952 the year I was born). The competition for everything including power can be a very deadly thing.
ReplyDeleteWell, at least the leaves of that coleus remind me of the utter stunning beauty of our planet. Beauty is the best balance to the rest.
That's a very good point -- we have so many more people now, there's bound to be more violence. Probably more kindness too, but we don't hear about that!
DeleteI was reading Louis Penny's newest this week and she had a good phrase, "when gullibility and fear meet power and greed...we get the madness of crowds". We have seen this in history and we are seeing it now. It is scary but I still want to believe the majority wants peace and uses kindness and it is only the crazies and corrupt that we hear about all of the time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for more lovely photos!
I just finished that book last night. So good!
DeleteI don't know Louise Penny! I'll have to try one of her books! I think you're right about most people wanting peace. We hear about the "noisy fringe" but those are a tiny minority of people.
DeleteYour leaf photos are sublime. I think I've written that sentence about a million times since I've been reading your blog. Honestly, they are sublime! I agree with you about the seemingly endless barrage of horrifying news, and I also agree that there is (probably) nothing new under the sun -- except, maybe, that it is certainly devastatingly hotter.
ReplyDelete"Nothing new under the sun" -- a phrase written thousands of years ago, and true even then!!
DeleteSeems that the madness is everywhere. The most disturbing thing is that violent acts such as the murder of your MP and mass shootings here in the US are almost a daily occurrence and hardly receive any mention in the media......Your flower photos help to divert attention from the horrors out there. Thank you for that.
ReplyDeleteWell, the murder of the MP is getting a lot of press coverage here. It's the top story. I think it's shocking even to people who are inured to the violence in our modern society. Having said that, though, you're right that other shootings and stabbings have become almost routine, and that's appalling.
DeleteThe coleus photos are stunning.
ReplyDeleteAs for the world, I think it's always been a dumpster fire but the internet does tend to magnify it for all to see.
"Dumpster fire" -- LOL. I love that expression.
DeleteThose leaves you've photographed are beautiful. What a colorful plant to grow.
ReplyDeleteYes, that murder of the MP is all over the news here. It brings to mind the time that Gabby Giffords was shot along with several other people at one of her meetings with constituents. That was such a sad and senseless occasion.
Yes! This is very similar to the Gabby Giffords case.
DeleteHi Olga, Steve and Dave. I heard about the stabbing death of the law maker. The entire world has gotten to be a very sad place. Law makers are corrupted and crooked, their co-workers are just as bad. One bad one is trying to out do the others. All you can do is keep praying and do your best to protect yourself. We're having so much killing here in the Houston and surrounding areas until it make you afraid to leave home. You just might get shot driving on the freeway. Everyone is going crazy. (lol)
ReplyDeleteI know it's difficult but try wearing your mask as much as possible. You have to protect yourself. I was in Kroger (grocery store) yesterday and had to ask this young lady to get back off me. I told her I don't mean any harm mam but I am very ill. She had on no mask and the young man and her was just steady yapping and covid could be going everywhere......By the way I like all your post because you talk about real life situations. We enjoy it. Sometimes we have to vent and leave our comfort zone.(laughing) We listen because what you say is still positive and truthful. (lol) If we hold in all this crap they would have to build a large crazy house community to put us in.(laughing)
I think everyone really IS going a bit crazy, having been locked down for the past few years and living under so much stress and uncertainty. I don't blame you for asking that woman to back off -- I hope she was open to what you had to say!
DeleteThat colorful foliage just shows you don't need blooms for beauty! I'm thinking coleus is not too difficult to grow? (for those like me with brown thumbs)
ReplyDeleteYes, if you read history, you know that the world has certainly seen equally bleak times, if not much worse. It's just that now we're all so much more aware of it on a global scale. (which actually began in earnest with the Vietnam War playing out on our TVs in the late 60s)
Coleus isn't hard to grow at all, I'm happy to report! Give it a try!
DeleteYeah, the modern media culture has definitely changed our perception of all the world's ills.
The world certainly seems crazier (and scarier), even though it is actually safer. But for public figures it must be more dangerous - it makes you think that any public profile is not worth the risk.
ReplyDeleteThe government is definitely going to have to make changes in the way MPs expose themselves to danger. It's terrible that they're our elected representatives and they have to be protected from us!
DeleteFor countless years, whenever we have spoken to bank clerks they have been sitting behind glass screens. I suggest that this is what should happen at MPs surgeries as a matter of course. We don't want to see any more evil and unjustifiable assassinations of elected politicians. It is too much of a risk.
ReplyDeleteYeah, they probably do need some sort of physical protection, even beyond a police presence -- because these attacks can happen quickly. Maybe bullet- and knife-proof vests?
DeleteI think you should blow up that top photo large and frame for your wall. I was so saddened to hear the news about the slain MP.
ReplyDeleteAren't those colors amazing? I love how the leaves get deeper purple in the center of the plant.
DeleteWow, your coleus is amazing. I guess I never really considered the variety of them before.
ReplyDeleteA friend sent me something today, a quote from Maya Angelou: "Always remember that every storm runs out of rain."
That's a great quote. Unfortunately it seems we get one storm after another -- it's hard to tell where one stops and another begins!
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