Horticultural therapy

Derelict Sunday

This is a wild violet with many slug bites, surrounded by hostas. 

I have two neighbors, one on each side. One is my fellow wall warrior. She finally, after a decade of effort, grew a lush lawn only to have the wall people destroy it by allowing mud to flood all over it so she rightfully demanded they put in sod. She and I have been trying to grow vegetables on our decks forever.

The other neighbor complimented my garden. Her daughter looked at my garden and asked her mom why she had NO plants. Of course, she has no plants because she and her husband are the quintessential first-generation immigrant family and work non-stop. BUT she complimented my garden this morning, especially the blue lace-cap hydrangea. 

I was planning to go off back to Wilde Lake today but it was 90 degrees. I know it is much worse everywhere else. I took off and bought more mulch to help the plants survive the summer heat. 

And I wrapped up the day with a conversation with my fabulous mother-in-law. We discussed all the bad stuff, how angry we are, how bad things used to be, how bad they will be again, how bad they might get. But the fabulous aspect of our relationship is we cheer each other up when everyone else in the world is miserable, so I ended our conversation by telling her all about all the birds in my garden. "Woods" are fewer trees than a forest so we decided I can describe my woods even if I don't have a forest yet. 

The catbirds have begun eating on the deck. They are so handsome. 

I don't think using a discussion about one's garden to cheer oneself and someone else up is part of the conventional definition of horticultural therapy, but, hey, if it works. 

There are still incredibly brave people in Russia protesting. A singer put little stickers about the war on top of price tags in the store. An art teacher. A Russian orthodox priest. Moscow's municipal deputy. 

The G-7 will ban imports of Russian gold. We may put a cap in the prices of Russian oil and gas. The idea is to try to reduce the revenue Russia gets. If it reduces inflation, so much the better. 

Putin historically kept putting out photos of himself riding a horse barechested, so the G7 mocked him by asking if they needed to go naked horseback riding. 

EU and Kyiv have accelerated plans to fully link up Ukraine's electricity grid. Ukraine now has electricity to spare because millions of people fled and could earn billions of dollars selling it, helping to fund the war effort. They could begin selling to Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary this month or early July. Infrastructure projects like this normally take years. The Ukrainian and Polish energy companies aim to finish the job in months. Engineers have started to work on software at nuclear, hydro, and fossil-fuel plants that corrects frequency deviation. 

The Ukrainian battalion that sneaks into Russia and blows up ammunition depots is nicknamed "Shaman battalion" for its "almost otherworldly abilities." It only accepts the toughest and the unit specializes in diving, parachuting, and mountaineering. There is so going to be a movie.