Ferns

I did not sleep twelve hours straight last night but hopefully tonight will help me get back to local time. 

(The standard rule is an hour a day so I may be overly optimistic.)

My mentor has a show. It uses chairs as a theme - pull up a chair - to have a discussion on mental illness. I was on a plane during her opening night but I went to it today. The show is of chairs created by her and other artists. There were pictures of the artists with their chairs and printed, framed text for each. It was interesting to see how she printed and mounted pictures and to see her didactic. The chairs could be touched and from our discussions I knew they could be sat in too. 

There is a wildflower I’ve planted a couple of times. Hepatica. I see leaves. Maybe next year I’ll have flowers too?

Qatar has been mediating with Russia to have children returned to Ukraine. For a couple of weeks they are hosting 20 Ukrainian and Russian families for healthcare. This is supposed to help the families reintegrate. 

A French court seized a $5.7 million estate belonging to the husband of Putin’s ex. 

There is a weird story about a Texas man who supports Putin. He was convicted on drug charges a long time ago. In 2014 he was photographed in his cowboy hat with Russian soldiers and he was calling Ukrainians Nazis. He got Russian citizenship in 2020. He disappeared this month and the theory is that Russians snatched him and are accusing him of being a CIA spy.

Russian TV used to cheer Mike Johnson, the Republican House Majority leader who, until very recently, has been blocking aid to Ukraine. Now they are cheering Marjorie Taylor Green.  Russian TV used to mock her as a prime example of how stupid Americans are but she’s in favor now. They love that she called NATO useless and said America is supporting Nazis in Ukraine. 

Ukraine attacked eight Russian regions with long-range drones early Saturday. This resulted in a fire at a fuel depot and hits on three power substations. Moscow confirmed the attack. Russia's defense ministry said it shot down 50 Ukrainian drones, including 26 in the Belgorod region, 10 in the Bryansk region, eight in Kursk region, two in Tula region as well as one in each of the regions of Smolensk, Ryazan, Kaluga, and Moscow. I’m not sure if it is the same attack but in a recent attack in Belogorod, Russian missiles taking down the drones resulted in damage to residential buildings. That is a big difference. Russia has been deliberately targeting civilians. Ukraine is very careful to avoid civilian targets. Damage to Russian civilian targets is due to the Russian military.