I think I am aware of my surroundings. I have lived in my home for a number of years. When I first moved here, I would mow the lawn and I had a small herb garden. I noticed all the animals–squirrels, rabbits, deer, groundhogs, lizards, snakes, etc. I noticed the birds especially the blue jays that like to fight and left blue feathers all over the yard. Maybe, I did not pay attention to the flora. This year I noticed that the Japanese honeysuckle has red berries, as do the shrubs surrounding the front porch and the red bud trees. 
All the berries are a shade of red and they are very noticeable. And…and…the buckeyes have returned after about five years. I heard that Ohio buckeyes bring good luck. I have not heard the same thing about its cousin, the Tennessee buckeye. I keep a few around. You never know!!!!
Remember, I said Mother Earth is confused? Well, not only have I had cherry blossoms, today I noticed some volunteer zinnias that could not wait for spring! I moved the popups from the grass to the bed, however unless it remains warm like it did last year, the frost will kill them. 
About five years ago, a friend gave me a plant that she was rooting. I left the plant in the water until I thought it had sufficient roots. I planted it and it died. Well, I thought it had died. There was nothing but a dried stub in the pot and I kept forgetting to dump the pot in one of my flower beds. After the plant “died”, I did not water it or maybe I did when watering the other potted plants. I can assure you, it was not intentional. A couple of months ago, a leaf popped up. The soil was bone dry. So, I put a bit, a tiny bit of fertilizer in the pot after I watered it. Now, this plant appears to be thriving! 
I’m sure there is a lesson, but the lesson escapes me. My thumb is brown, not green! If a potted plant is not exceptionally hardy, it will die! I really like prayer plants and none of them have lived. They’re too expensive to experiment with, so I watch for sales. I have left them in the pot; I have repotted them; nothing seems to work. Someone did say I kept the house too cold in the winter. The prayer plant that I admired was kept in a room with an old fashioned heater that kept the room sauna temperatures. For now, I admire them in the store.
I have to give a shout out to the kiwi which has never fruited even though I planted a male and a female plant, per instructions. The cold snap of a couple of years ago killed one of the kiwi plants. The other struggled for a year and, last year, appeared to be doing well. This summer, by all accounts, it died. It was green, then it turned brown and withered. A couple of weeks ago, it began turning green again. Another comeback!
Thank you Nobel Peace Prize Committee for standing tall and reiterating to the world that the Nobel Peace Prize means something. A “something” that is positive and rewards a people’s struggles for peace. Corrupt leaders who promote division within their own countries and murder of non-citizens based on imaginary enemies are not struggling for peace, but to dominate through force and they do not deserve to be sane washed. Thank you again for awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to a Hispanic woman whose country is being targeted by a bully.
I wrote the above paragraph when I heard the news. Now, I have seen a video of that woman spewing lies about the greatness of the bully and the bully’s achievements. She dedicated the award to the bully. Traitors come in all colors and all genders. She is a traitor to her people and, if the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, knew of her dictatorial proclivities, they, on the committee, are cowards. If they did not, is there a process to relieve her of the award? No incipient dictator or Nazi-leaning mouthpiece should be given the award. For her people, not that she cares about her people if she is praising the bully who has murdered her people, she should remain in hiding. That being said…it is a video…is it an AI doctored video?
It’s a shame in this Evil Era that nothing can be trusted. Nothing.
The power structure has always destroyed that which benefited the poor and marginalized. In a New York Times article written by Joumana Khatib, she tells us of a treatment for drug addiction that was effective and inexpensive, i.e., acupuncture, that was demonized and removed from a city funded hospital. Fortunately, the treatment remained available, but this is an example of the ways and means used by the power in this country to keep poor people struggling.
It’s a Friday. Went to Kroger’s. Some Fridays, there is coupon for double points for a discount on gas. When I remember, I shop on Fridays if I have that coupon. Today. a white woman tried to steal bags of groceries. And you know what I heard–her screaming don’t touch me; you don’t have any right to touch me. Screams of entitlement. Like she can steal and there should be no consequences. She didn’t once scream that she was hungry or her children were hungry. She screamed entitlement. Because she screamed entitlement, there was no sympathy and there shouldn’t have been. I was surprised she was caught. Usually white women steal with impunity while store security follows anyone who is Black. (A long time ago I went to a seminar and the expert on security admitted that most shoplifting was the work of white women, but they had to deal with optics.)
All the others, like myself, who coupon, look for marked down items, shop from the lower shelves…we pay more because of thieves like her.
Also, my neighbor informed me that their recycling bin, damaged recycling bin, had been stolen. And in broad daylight. Maybe, I suggested to him, the recycling truck took it because it was damaged. A possibility, a remote possibility, but a possibility.
I live in a red state. There is no safety net for the hungry, the sick, the unhoused. But, as I noted in a previous post, these people keep voting for people who will do nothing for them while groveling at the feet of the wealthy. We will see a spike in robberies and burglaries and the white perpetrators will not be blamed. The media will seek out a minority who has committed a burglary or robbery and all minorities will be to blame. That’s the lie and the deflection that white people use to remove attention from their bad behavior. I remember during Katrina, Black people were called looters and the white looters were sane washed.
Sometimes I read the magazine put out by the Smithsonian. In the January-February 2025 issue, there was an article on Peter Faneul. Here is a quote from that article–“…Faneul moved to Boston as a young man to apprentice with his uncle. Soon, Faneul was expanding his family’s business by trading high-quality New England cod for European luxury goods; he sent so-called refuse-grade fish to the Caribbean, to feed the enslaved laborers who produced the molasses, sugar and rum that returned to Boston on Faneuil’s vessels. In 1742, the same year his hall (Boston’s Faneul Hall) was inaugurated, one of his ships, the Jolly Batchelor, sailed from Boston to Sierra Leone, returning with 20 kidnapped Africans.” (emphasis added) For those of you who don’t know, Faneul Hall is a venue in Boston that has been used since it was built for political speeches and as a market place. My point is…these money hungry, get rich at any cost white males are the ones who are venerated in the United States. This white male owned Slaves and exploited the Slave trade for profit. He sold trash food to feed human beings. Nothing mattered to him except the money.
In the same issue was a profile on Harriet Bell Hayden. She and her husband fled Slavery to Canada and returned to the United States to fight Slavery. Her home became the focal point of Boston’s Underground Railroad. She could read and could wield a gun. She helped many escape Slavery. She believed in a cause and risked her safety and her status as a free person to help others. She established a scholarship for Black students at Harvard Medical School.(I’m focusing on Harriet because even though, I’m sure her husband was her partner, she appears to be the guiding light.) Her and her husband’s name should be writ large, but they are mostly unknown while the name “Faneul” is emblazoned on a building.
The student in Mississippi who was adjudicated a suicide was murdered and lynched. An independent autopsy found that he did not kill himself. In the Washington Post article “Lynchings in Mississippi Never Stopped“, in most cases cited in the article, the police ruled the hanging a suicide. However, the police did not preserve the scenes and conveniently rejected any evidence to the contrary. Hate is alive and well in Mississippi and across these United States.
An ape’s an ape, a varlet’s a varlet, though they be clad in silk or scarlet. Alkebulan Proverb
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