Muppet Tree

Admirer's challenge, and her pseudonym, were both terrific.

This is a Mikawa Yatsubusa. On the Japanese Maple Facebook group I'm on, this is a wildly popular tree. It is a dwarf, at 10 years it should only be 4 feet tall. It looks like a muppet. The little blue flowers are from Brunnera macrophylla. 

Kate told me that it's common name, bugloss, means "ox-tongue" and when I felt it I laughed because yes, that is what you think an ox's tongue would feel like. 

It was a good, balanced day. Feed and watch the birds. Clean something nasty. Feed and watch the birds. Clean something else nasty. Play in some dirt. Vacuum. Play in some more dirt. Do some other chore. 

I learned that the cute little sparrow-sized birds visiting me are chickadees. 

I had a fun little conversation with Lucile Whitman who owns Whitman Farms in Oregon. She said that life gets better in the later years. I said I heard your warranty ends in your 50s. She said you do in fact spend more time in the shop. 

Lucile went to the same college I did and then got a PhD in Latin and Greek and taught. She followed her husband to Oregon where she could not get a job teaching Latin or Greek and bought a little filbert tree farm almost as a hobby. She wasn't selling much, so she began collecting weird trees and then became known as the woman who had all the interesting, unusual species. 

Also wonderful, a nice conversation with my mother-in-law where we discussed how good gardens are for you so we could have something positive to talk about in what has been a rough week. 

The final bit of wonderful:  ameretti from Dreaming! They are a wonderful almond cookie. When I got them I immediately made some coffee to accompany them. Life is good. 

Ukraine announced that all women, children, and elderly have been evacuated from the steel plant in Mariupol. 

Also today, the news reports that volunteer crews are helping to evacuate people with mobility issues. 

Ukraine's military flattened Russian positions on Snake Island, the island where Ukrainian soldiers told the Russian warship Moskva to do itself. 

The Ukrainian army said it retook control of five villages and part of a sixth near Kharkiv. 

A fancy new high-tech Russian tank is now a smoking wreck. 

There is a seven-mile-long fire in Russia but the firefighters are on their way to Ukraine. Fed up with it, some Russians took over a hashtag meant to support the war and posted videos and photos of the Siberian wildfires. 

Also in Siberia, two men attacked a military recruitment center. One threw petrol bombs, the other filmed it. Apparently several recruitment centers have been targeted since the war began. 

There are all these shocking explosions happening in Russia near the border, hitting fuel depots and ammunition depots. Some really could be accidents due to lax safety standards. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said they could be divine retribution. 

Russians and yachts? Italy just impounded a superyacht in Tuscany as it was preparing to set sail. It is linked to Putin. Remember the $300 million yacht in Fiji? This one is $700 million! How is it better? Well, it has gold-plated taps, a swimming pool, and two helicopter pads. One just really isn't enough. What are taps? Why would I want them gold-plated? 

There is a growing problem in Kyiv - hedgehogs. The streets are empty. They are wandering in the streets. It is forcing patrol car drivers to swerve or brake. They tend to come out at night which means they are breaking curfew.