It's been a tough day, with our soldier going on a killing binge in Afghanistan -- and apparently he's not the first. And their fighters just killed six young British soldiers. (Which event came first?) Assad of Syria still pursues his killing binge, a very coldly and politically calculated one. American politics still writhes with its foot caught in the trap of dirty name-calling, a trap set by big money and sprung by bigotry (remember, bigotry is not determined by which beliefs one holds but by the utterly tenacious way one holds those opinions).
So, it was great to see on the news Queen Elizabeth making her rounds with the fledgling princess under her wing. So, it was good to take a walk and see the spring bulb flowers sticking a first green shoot or two out to test the sun and air. And it was some relief that the flares from our sun, which were expected to be disruptive, weren't. Just beautiful, from what I've heard on the news.
The flowers pictured above were among the iris I imported from my daughter Leah's home on the Principia College campus in Elsah, Illinois, during the years her family lived there. Planted by my front door in Waldoboro, Maine, they were sheltered and came up early.
Here is a picture that hints at how those iris, paired with
my own-planted white lilacs, fed me my spring tonic each year.
May they do the same for you.
