March 29

Way, Way, Way too early but we have a couple of furry pests one of whom is being especially pestiferous. Much too early to tell what the weather looks like though we do have a bright moon showing so the skies are at least partly clear. The temperatures have been on their seasonal roller coaster between spring warmth and winter hanging on. We have seen some signs of impending spring: the pale green aura on the willow trees that indicate leaves are about to open up, the leaf buds on the maples are swelling and some of the early flowers blooming. But it is still too cold to do more than clean out the dead foliage in my gardens which depends on things drying out. We had rain a good part of the weekend just past.

March 30

As you can guess I didn't get much reading done yesterday. I did get some embroidery and crocheting done, and did a little weaving on my Kayu and Zoom looms. 

It was fairly warm this morning so I may get out to clear out some of the dead plants. So far everything that survived the winter has survived the recent cold snap. I hope it will survive the rest of the week because we expect below freezing overnight temperatures for a couple of nights. Did you all see the amazing temperatures on the east coast over last weekend? Eighties this early is mind blowing. And those tornado swarms down south are frightening. It may be winding up for another strange weather year.

We have been turning off the news for most of the time. We don't really need a blow-by-blow description and dissection of the Chauvin trial and the Republican theater on the southern border is both predictable and boring. We have spent more time on the BBC channel. At least they give us more information and less emotion.

Tomdispatch.com has a piece by Aviva Chomsky about the history of our involvement in Central America and migration from there to the U.S. I had known some of this history but I hadn't realized how stuck in a destructive groove our foreign policy has been. I have thought since 9/11 that we needed to shake out the mental cobwebs and get creative. But somehow I don't think we will.

In a bit of good news the Ever Given (the container ship stuck for nearly a weed in the Suez Canal) is finally free and shipping can continue. I haven's seen anything that says how expensive the delay has been although the N.Y. Times claims Egypt lost $95 million in transit fees. Also it will take days to a few weeks to clear the backlog of ships awaiting transit through the canal. Update: Another blog cited Lloyds of London figures indicating that losses to world economy reached $9.6Billion/day. The canal carries about 10% of world's commerce.