yard work and the shaming of a nation

The daffodils are blooming.

I spent the entire day yesterday working outside, mostly across the street. I cut back the confederate rose, the mexican bird of paradise, trimmed some low branches off the small sycamore tree, cut a limb off the tallow that was brushing up against the house, cut back the two purple orchid tree shrubs and the two hummingbird bushes, cut back the enormous yellow bells. This was all between the back of the house and the shop. I have debris piles scattered all over that need to be moved to the burn pile. I still have to do the front of the house…the morning glory bush, the white orchid tree/shrub, the pink trumpet flower shrub, and the rangoon creeper; each one an enormous job, and the banana trees in back. I also dug up more of my sister’s narcissus and rain lily (I think) bulbs and some of the hidden ginger roots and then at my house treated 5 enormous fire ant mounds with diatomaceous earth and then an organic ant poison and watered that in and potted up the green onions I never used and a ginger root that had a little growth bud on it, my second time to try and grow ginger from the grocery store.

Friday I finally tackled the banana trees in my yard. I didn’t cut them all the way to the ground, well the little ones yes, because the trunks still seemed firm so I just cut them down to that point. We’ll see how that works out, if they grow from the center. If not, I’ll cut them to the ground later. 

Unfortunately, hauling that debris through the high growth at the back of the property to throw it all into the wild space was fatal to my garden cart. You might remember that last year I foolishly left it behind my granddaughter’s boyfriend’s car while I worked on something and he backed into it. I managed to beat it back into a semblance of shape and use with a hammer but the wheel that took the brunt of the collision finally succumbed. I noticed it had become very wobbly and on closer inspection, well, it just came right off. The center with the ball bearings was totally mangled and detached. I could possibly get a replacement for the wheel if I could get the rusted nut off which seems unlikely. So now I’m using Pam’s little wagon until I can get a new cart.

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I was going to lead with this but changed my mind. You can skip it if you want, the whole world was witness.

Trump is nothing more than a two bit thug, a bully, with delusions of grandeur. We all knew that but it was full-on on display Friday in the oval office of the White House as Trump and Vance embarrassed, mortified even, this nation with their behavior and made it plain to the world that the United States no longer held any kind of moral high ground and cannot be relied upon to support its allies. The lies and the shouts and the threats; the contempt, belligerence, and ignorance with which they spoke to Zelensky, all planned in advance, was a disgrace. They disgraced this nation. Trump intended to beat Zelensky down, to show him how powerless he is so that he would grovel for whatever crumbs Trump might be willing to toss him. Trump expected Zelensky to fold like a cheap tent and relinquish occupied territory to Putin and give Trump Ukraine's mineral wealth with no guarantees of security in the name of peace, of ending the war. It was clear to everyone, especially our allies, that Trump stands on the side of Russia. But Zelensky, the leader of a democratic nation fighting a war for their sovereignty in the face of Russia’s unprovoked aggression intended to bring Ukraine back under the control of Russia, would not be cowed even as he insisted on telling the truth to their lies. In the end Zelensky refused their demands and Trump in his fury at being denied canceled the press conference and lunch that was to follow and ordered Zelensky to leave the White House. It was heartening to see that condemnation of this grotesque display was swift both here and world wide and caused an immediate outpouring for Ukraine by the democratic nations and organizations of the world.

Nothing enrages Trump more than to be denied what he wants and this is the second time Zelensky has denied him what he wants, the first being an announcement that Ukraine was investigating Hunter Biden during Trump’s first term. Trump desired and tried to extort that out of him in order to cast shade on his opponent Joe Biden and ended up being impeached for that act. And when Trump doesn’t get what he wants he reacts with vengeance and retribution. I fear for Ukraine. It would not surprise me if Trump ordered our troops to enter Ukraine and take what he wants, just like Russia.

And then because Trump thinks this is some kind of reality show he remarked that the whole debacle made good television. No you miserable boil on the backend of a baboon, it did not make good television. You shamed this nation in front of the whole world.