in memory of

My friend who died about a year ago introduced me to snapdragons. I'd seen them before, but I didn't know what they were called and I definitely had no idea that they snapped. I was surprised and delighted and she was surprised no one had ever shown me before and delighted by my reaction. Now they remind me of her so I bought some last weekend at the nursery. 

I must have placed and forgotten to cancel an order for bulbs a long time ago because I got a bunch in the mail. I guess I'll be planting bulbs this weekend and hoping to not slice through currently planted bulbs while I do so. Now I have Michael's flower, snowdrops, and spring and fall crocuses. Oops. 

I have continued cooking. Just tonight I used a quesadilla technique Kate taught me in Iceland. 

We made it through an exciting week. A lying, malicious man was fined $1 billion dollars. He doesn't have it, but it means it will ruin him financially. Another evil, lying man was subpoenaed but none of us knows what will come of that. 

I am not going to South Africa this month and .... I'm relieved. I hope I'm just relieved because I didn't want the drama of trying to rush through excess bureaucracy. 

A Russian woman, Yulia Prokhorova, has been harassing Ukrainian refugees in Germany and Austria. Lately she's been mocking Ukrainian missile victims. Germany Federal Police raided her apartment. 

There is a theory that the recent Russian bombardment of civilians and civilian infrastructure, supposedly in retaliation for the bombing of the Kerch bridge, was in fact already planned. This matches my experience with bad men - they blame you for making them do something when they would have done it anyway. 

The Russian missile and drone attacks, while ghastly, were not as deadly as they could have been, raising the question of whether Russia is running out of missiles. Maybe their guided missiles are not very effective, or maybe Russia is running short of precision munitions. Their attacks used outdated, unguided, imprecise missiles. Western intelligence officials suggest that Russia used up its good stuff and, due to sanctions, can't produce more. They've been using them up on civilians and getting no military result as Ukraine continues to push forward, reclaiming five villages in the south in two days. 


Russia has hit ground targets with missiles and rockets designed to destroy aircraft or ships.


Yet another sign? Today Putin said there was no need for massive new strikes and Russia was not looking to destroy the country.


Meanwhile, this has all spurred the West to speed up delivery of promised systems. A first shipment of very new, very high-tech, heat-seeking missiles from Germany was delivered Tuesday. France, the Netherlands, and Spain pledged this week to send more air defense missiles. The United States said it would hasten delivery of two missile launchers.


In Belgorod, Russia, another ammunition depot has blown up.