Citrus and Research

Remember when I said the blooms on our mandarin orange tree never fully open? Well, never mind. The tree is now covered with lots of lightly-scented white flowers. It's still indoors, and maybe the flowers last better inside rather than out. Just a guess. We'll see if this brings us any fruit!

I worked in the garden all morning yesterday, neatening things up after the gardeners' visit during the week. It may seem silly that I needed to do anything at all, but there were some jobs I didn't ask them to tackle (like deadheading all the hydrangeas) and others that needed some minor tweaks.

For example, we have a large Hebe bush in the back garden and although they cleared the ivy all around it, they didn't clear under the bush. So I wanted to neaten that up. I trimmed the frost-nipped leaves off the banana, cut down the tall grasses to prepare them for a new year of growth, cut down the last of the teasels, trimmed some of the ferns, stuff like that.

Altogether I filled three yard waste bags, and I think now we're going to order some mulch to help keep weeds down where the ivy has been cleared. (Since the gardeners removed all my carefully preserved fallen leaves -- argh!)

While I did all this, the lady of the house lay in the sunshine nearby for some strenuous napping. I love seeing her enjoying her sunbathing for another year. It wasn't particularly warm (48º F or 9º C) but the sun was bright and I didn't feel cold at all -- and apparently neither did she.

I also did three loads of laundry -- still catching up after Florida -- and caught up in blogland. I particularly enjoyed the vigorous debate at John Gray's blog about Trump and Zelenskyy. (And is it Zelenskyy or Zelensky? Different sources spell it different ways. Remember how, in the '80s, no one could decide how to spell Muammar Gadaffi's name using a Western alphabet? A problem that evidently persists even now.)

I find it so interesting that Trump supporters often say "don't trust the media" and "do your own research." What constitutes research in their minds? I doubt they're reading through primary source documents or interviewing participants in world events. They're simply reading alternative media, or more likely spreading it via shares on Facebook and Twitter. That's not research.

Some high-profile scandals and missteps over the years have given people reason to mistrust the media, but professional news organizations -- especially those that attempt some degree of objectivity -- are still the best sources of fact-based information out there. A lot of professionally trained people have a hand in news presented via The New York Times or The Guardian or the Times of London or the BBC or CNN, whereas something posted on Facebook or a 4Chan message board may come from just one person with no editor and no real idea what they're talking about. I know that sounds like a very old-fashioned perspective -- particularly regarding objectivity, a word we seldom hear these days -- but having toiled in this field myself for many years I understand the industry and I can tell you reporters and editors at reputable news sources, for the most part, are trying their best to tell it like it is. I'll trust them any day over a possibly doctored video or some snippet of "fact" floating around online.

I do think there's value in reading a variety of professional news sources, which is why I read some on the right (and even the far right) as well as the left. Different perspectives can be helpful. But you've got to consider your source, and again, I wouldn't call that "research." It's just more media from another viewpoint.

Last night Dave and I watched "The Substance," the movie for which Demi Moore is nominated for an Oscar. It's a sort of dystopian horror film about a mysterious medical treatment that can restore youthful beauty, but at a terrible cost. There's quite a bit of blood but it was riveting and we both enjoyed it. It questions society's expectations about appearance, particularly for women, and takes the consequences to an absurd level. Some of those scenes are going to live in my mind for quite a while, for better or worse!