Short and sweet this morning – we’re off on Tuesday morning for our excursion to SE Asia and there are still seventy-four thousand things to do before then! Just to maintain some semblance of order, however, you will be delighted to know that the weather has continued to be mainly dull and damp although Friday, I have to admit, was a pretty decent day with this occasional strange orange glow as the sun peeked through the cloud cover.
As the weather was half-decent on Friday (still bitterly cold – for us, anyway) Penelope decided a day in the garden was required. One of my favourite things! There were two largish tasks – to prune the apple and pear trees in the orchard and to finish the pruning of the wisteria on the gable end of the house. We made good progress on both and even had time to give the lawn a much-needed gentle going-over. (You may remember that the lawn did not get its final trim of the season last autumn – it was wet, wet, wet.) It seems ridiculously early to be mowing one’s lawn but with this crazy climate change business, it needed it. And, we weren’t the first in the village to do so! We heard the dulcet tones of someone else’s lawn mower a few weeks ago!
We had a late lunch/early supper with Nick, Lucy and Annabelle yesterday which is always fun. We met them at the Red Lion in Culworth and enjoyed a lovely meal. Nick is acting as our chauffeur on Tuesday – thankfully for all concerned, our departure is at a very civilised time of day. Sadly (for him), our arrival home again in March is at a ridiculously early hour – we’ve told him we won’t mind sitting in a coffee shop at the airport until he can get there.
We’ve been open-mouthed and gob-smacked at the continuing bizarre antics of the lunatic currently occupying the Oval Office. As someone once said in a different context, that man is depriving a village somewhere of a perfectly good idiot.
What do you do when you take over the presidency and start to address the many problems currently facing the US and the wider world? Obviously claim that you’re going to buy/take over Greenland and the Panama Canal, displace all the Palestinians and develop the Gaza Riviera and, of course, declare that the Gulf of Mexico is now to be referred to as the Gulf of America. And all these tech bros falling over themselves to pacify the baby – unbelievable!
Interestingly, it seems that Google and Apple have re-labelled the Gulf as the “Gulf of America” but only for those accessing the sites from the US. Google seems to have partially capitulated by giving both names for those of us outside the US whereas Apple maps makes no reference to the Gulf of America, at least in what I’m seeing. I’ll be interested to know if our American reader can confirm or deny the veracity of all this.
I did find the following quite amusing though.
Perhaps this would be the best approach when dealing with a gringo who is clearly loco.
And in response to his desire to buy or take over Greenland, the Danes have offered to buy California instead. More than 200,000 Danes have signed a satirical petition to buy California from the US.
Have you ever looked at a map and thought, ‘You know what Denmark needs? More sunshine, palm trees, and roller skates.’ Well, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality,” the petition reads. “Let’s buy California from Donald Trump!”
Great idea!
And, it seems that sycophancy is contagious – I ran across an article describing how the appropriately-named Buddy Carter (I don’t know if there’s any familial connection but Jimmy would be turning over in his grave), a Republican Congressman from Georgia, has introduced a bill that would authorise President Donald Trump to purchase Greenland and rename it “Red, White and Blueland.”
Exactly what I would want my congressman to be doing – never mind all the important, serious issues which need addressing.
This stuff is golden – you really could not make this shit up!
Back in about five weeks’ time – enjoy the peace.
Meanwhile, keep breathing, keep happy, keep smiling, keep exercising, be good, be careful, and keep safe. And be gentle to wasps and bees – we need all the pollinators we can get.
Lots of love to you all,
Greg