little abstractish?

The butterfly! I told you there was a butterfly visiting and enjoying the heuchera! 

I ran into the "woman in the woods" who told me crows like Cheetos and we talked about gardens. She pointed out which house was hers so I can come enjoy her native flowers when I'm not dragging Samuel so I'll be back in time for a meeting. Iceland. Gardening. Dogs. These are the things people bond over, if they don't have children anyway.

Speaking of meetings, I did finish my stupid classes and I did fail and then pass the stupid test. Last night I called IT and when he asked my user name I growled, "I passed the stupid test!" which made him laugh because of course that sentence all by itself explains the entire situation. After my first meeting today (which I attended by cell phone) my account was restored, just in time for me to get another notice telling me I have to attend privacy classes or I'll get kicked out. 

Russia's deliberate targeting of civilians maintains the world's commitment to punish it. EU member states are set to agree on providing 500 million euros more in military aid to Ukraine when the bloc’s foreign ministers meet Monday, taking the total to 2.5 billion.


A "second wave" of Russians is fleeing. They took time to get their affairs in order, to figure out how to apply for asylum, find a job, or start a business, and now they are gone. They are going to Turkey, Georgia,  Armenia, Israel, and the Baltic States. Then you have people who are leaving because their customers will no longer work with people in Russia. 


45 nations pledge to ordinate evidence of war crimes in Ukraine. 


Ukraine regained Snake Island. Now it is shipping grain from nearby ports. Each ship can haul thousands of tons of cargo. 


Some weeks ago I reported that some pretty anti-gay groups in militias knew that they were getting financial support from gay Ukrainians and reported that LGBTI community thought that the war was making Ukraine more inclusive. I do not dare to hope, but there is a petition urging the Ukrainian government to legalize same-sex marriage. It has 28,000 signatures and has been sent to President Zelinsky. Any petition in Ukraine that gets more than 25,000 signatures is automatically eligible for consideration by the president, who is required to respond within ten days. In May a study by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that 38.2% of Ukrainians had a negative view of the LGBTQ community, down from 60.4% in 2016. That is significant.