I need to step away from the blogging for a bit.
Family is visiting until after the 4th.
Wishing you the best on the upcoming Fourth of July.
Saturday, June 27, 2026
Tuesday, June 23, 2026
Zentangling the Lawn
Are you familiar with Zentangle?
I've been doing it for years. Here are some I have on display in the bathroom:
Sunday while mowing the lawn with my electric lawnmower, I realized the patterns I was mowing were Zentangles. I try to mow it in different directions each week and this week found myself making arches.
I've tried to take photos but they don't do my tangling mowing justice.
It started to rain just as I finished. Good timing!
Monday, June 22, 2026
Jennifer Rubin in The Contrarian this Monday Morning
On Thursday, Americans could see the stark contrast between two presidents, two visions of America, and two codes of behavior. Rarely has a split screen been so informative.
On one side, Donald Trump, a fetid figure in irreversible decline, lumbered around Versailles and signed a deal capitulating to an Iranian regime he had vowed to overthrow. By Saturday, Iran flaunted the extent of its diplomatic triumph, reclosing the Strait of Hormuz on the grounds that the United States failed to stop Israel from violating the ceasefire in Lebanon.
The extent of his catastrophe — the product of his noxious vision of “might makes right,” genocidal fury, and constitutional nihilism — was in full view. (“The humiliation is the point,” wrote Graeme Wood. “Iran got the United States to sign a document that even Americans described as degrading, mortifying, a total capitulation.”) Unsurprisingly, Trump stuck Vice President JD Vance (whose own career may be another casualty of the war) with the job of defending the indefensible.
On the other side of the split screen, former President Barack Obama, looking trim and vigorous, delivered remarks opening his presidential center. Reminding us how presidents should behave, he disparaged no group of Americans, rewrote no history, recited no election results, and ridiculed no predecessors (instead, he praised the three on stage with him).
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It’s easy to see why Trump loathes Obama, whose intellectual and verbal acuity, graciousness, class, and real accomplishments Trump could never match. As the unfavorable comparison to a Black man whose presidency the rabidly racist Trump tried to delegitimize becomes starker, it is no surprise Trump’s unhinged meltdowns become more frequent.
Obama addressed the key question before us: Can our democracy survive?That largely depends, Obama said, on our commitment to the “shared values that make democracy possible” (each of which Trump has savaged, not coincidentally):
A belief that our military and law enforcement owe allegiance not to any president or political party, but to the people and our Constitution.
A belief in the peaceful transfer of power after the people have spoken in fair and free elections, recognizing that in a large, complicated society like ours, no group or faction gets its way 100% of the time.
And a belief that qualities of character, honesty, integrity, kindness, compassion, a sense of duty and honor, those things matter in our public dealings, just as they do in our private lives.
Obama reiterated that these are values “we can all share, regardless of party, values every president here today, as different as we are, has tried our best to uphold, values that John McCain and Mitt Romney believed in no less than I did.” Only Trump stands apart, hostile to American values and contemptuous of those who embrace them. (Yes, I still find it unfathomable the same country could elect both Trump and Obama.)
Declining to minimize the extent of our democratic crisis (“It’s a lot…. I get it. I am not immune to anger or doubt”), Obama acknowledged that our anxiety and social isolation gets heightened by “a steady stream of distraction and outrage, as only the loudest, most extreme voices get attention, fanning our prejudices, appealing to our basest, most tribal instincts.” Obama nevertheless cautioned against giving in “to cynicism, and even despair.”
Obama made a rather compelling empirical argument that democracy is on the rebound. “In cities that have worked together to reclaim their streets from crime, in rural communities that have rebuilt their economy, in businesses that are finding new ways to make housing affordable, and those ordinary people in the Twin Cities, who brave frigid temperatures, risk their own safety, standing shoulder to shoulder to look out for their neighbors, and sometimes look out for strangers, because they knew that was the right thing to do,” Americans are rising to the occasion.
Though the mere mention of Minnesota was enough to trigger goosebumps, stirring memories of resilience and courage in the face of intolerable lawlessness and brutality, we have seen plenty of green shoots of democracy spring up. Chicagoans protected their migrant neighbors, grand jurors refused to rubber stamp absurd indictments, a post-Callais civil rights movement staved off re-redistricting in South Carolina and Georgia, and millions turned out in No Kings peaceful protests.
MAGA cultists desperately want Americans to trade pluralistic democracy for autocratically imposed white Christian supremacy, but they have few takers. MAGA dead-enders are left to gaze on the White House squalor after the gladiator games and soothe their white resentment by reinstalling Confederate names on military bases and blocking Black and female military officers’ promotions. Increasingly, we see MAGA has nothing but Lost Cause political stunts and DEI for incompetent white males — a formula for political extinction.
As Obama told us, “America’s story isn’t frozen in the past. It has chapters yet to be written, not by one person or a few people … but by all of us” (unless you are cocooned in a dying cult with no positive agenda or compelling leader).
It’s no coincidence that the Obama center focuses heavily on ordinary citizens who helped him make change and on future leaders who will continue his life’s work. The foundation’s mission statement is not an exercise in false modesty but rather a calculated bet that lifting up regular people and developing engaged, committed citizens is the best way to ensure that Obama’s legacy continues and democracy prevails.
Like the 19th-century abolitionists who steeled themselves against serial setbacks to “stay true to our better selves and true to one another, and to keep fighting, to fulfill the promise of this nation,” we have every reason to eschew defeatism, Obama argued. We too can retain “a basic faith in the decency of our fellow citizens and the possibility that despite all of our differences, we can see each other and understand one another and make common cause together.”
Of late, I find plenty of evidence to support Obama’s view that Americans truly “want to find a way to turn towards each other again, not further away.” The fight to define America will be won not by embittered, decaying bullies frantically racing to rewrite the past and savage other Americans. It will be won by a multi-generational movement dedicated to constructing the most inclusive, values-based democracy possible. The future belongs to Chicago and Minnesota, not to Versailles and Mar-a-Lago.
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Saturday, June 20, 2026
3 Randoms
#1
Isn't this a lovely flower? I noticed it growing in the lawn but had to mow it off. When I spotted the same leaves in the front garden bed, I let them grow. It sent up this long flower stalk and produced this flower. It's a Hawk Eye I think. Mostly grows as a yellow flower.
#2
Fresh snow peas and sugar snap peas from my garden. There are many more. I tried to only pick the large ones so there will be more harvests. Have company coming for lunch on Tuesday so I think I will save these for then.
#3
Dog sitting this weekend. This is Maple. She's a mix of toy poodle and King Charles spaniel. I think I got that right. I also have rabbit and chicken duty too.
Friday, June 19, 2026
Strawberry Update
Thanks for all the suggestions.
Boud's comment made me realize that Dan has a NutriBullet and he could make a strawberry/banana smoothie for us.
He did this morning and it was delicious.
There are still a few left. Maybe into a salad with lettuce from the garden today.
Thursday, June 18, 2026
First Local...
... strawberries.
How shall I fix them?
How do you like your strawberries?
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Addendum: I ended up fixing about 2 cups of these by taking off the tops, slicing in half, sugaring them with a bit of lemon juice.
I baked oatmeal almond scones with a few chocolate chips added.
We had the scones topped with strawberries and whipped cream.
Sorry no photos!
I still have half of the container of berries to use up!
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
A Huge Old Tree
St. Gaudens National Historical Park has one of the largest thornless honey locust trees in the country. Up until recently it was the largest. Now one in Virginia is larger. This tree was thought to be planted by Augustus St. Gaudens in front of his house in the late 1800s.
The steps to the house have been moved many times to accommodate the girth of this tree. One member of our group worked here 50 years ago and said that the tree was to the right of the door then. Now you can't see the door to the house.
The head gardener is trying to grow offspring of this tree. One way is that clear ball around the branch below. Somehow roots develop and it can be planted.
The tree has it's own ecosystem (maybe that's not the right word) as shown by these lilac sprouts growing above ground between the trunk and a large branch.
I didn't step back far enough to get a view of the entire canopy. It's outfitted with lightning rods as a precaution plus horizontal supports to support the heavy branches.
Some more views of these lovely grounds.
Gardens
The Little Studio
And a reproduction of a famous sculpture.
Come to New Hampshire to see this wonderful park. With latest cutbacks on national park funding it's only open Thursday-Monday. We were there on a Tuesday for a special presentation to our historical society and garden club members. The buildings weren't open but grounds were.
Tuesday, June 16, 2026
Monday, June 15, 2026
Three Great Pieces from The Contrarian
Confirming Blanche Might Finish Off Republicans’ Careers
How voting to promote the Epstein cover-up architect could play out.
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Senate Republicans who vote to confirm Todd Blanche for attorney general should take heed: They will be haunted for the rest of their careers (some of which may very well end with the midterms) by the courageous survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s monstrous crimes.
CNN reported that last week 19 Epstein victims “responded to The New York Times’s reporting that Blanche and other senior officials participated in Situation Room meetings to discuss how to respond to growing pressure for more transparency as the issue became a public relations crisis for the administration.” The survivors’ statement read in part:
We are deeply disturbed to learn that so many senior members of the administration gathered in the Situation Room to discuss the release of the Epstein files as a reputational problem, rather than an opportunity to pursue investigative leads and try to figure out what actually happened.
Read the rest here
Sunday night, Donald Trump announced an Iran ceasefire deal had been reached. In the days to come, we will learn more, but it will be critical to keep an eye on what is NOT in this memorandum and to understand the ceasefire will not curtail, let alone end, Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Council on Foreign Relations Middle East expert Steven Cook told me that his initial impression of the announcement “is that there is nothing in the agreement on which President Trump can actually claim ‘victory.’” He noted, “Even if there is a return to freedom of navigation in the strait, it is merely a return to the Feb. 27 status quo.” Though we are supposedly going to sit down to talk about the Iranian nuclear program, Cook pointed out, “that is what we were doing before he launched the war.” He asked, “Why did he fight this war? Strategically, the president achieved nothing.”
Read the rest HERE
You Removed the Name — and the Curse — of Donald
Inside our Kennedy Center and slush fund successes: Publisher's Roundup 71
You did it, Contrarians. Out of all the over 300 legal cases and matters that your paid subscriptions have helped make possible, few have garnered more attention than our fights to remove Donald Trump’s name from the Kennedy Center and to stop his $1.8 billion slush fund. Now both are finally happening — and that’s good news for our democracy.
Let’s start with the Kennedy Center, where this happened in the wee hours early on Saturday:
The removal of Trump’s name was thanks to our client, Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), to my colleagues at Democracy Defenders Action, to our co-counsel Washington Litigation Group — and to your paid subscriptions, which help fuel my and my colleagues’ pro-democracy litigation.
Read the rest HERE