Self’s roses have a few scattered blooms, but none look good after weeks of rain and high wind.
Here are All Dressed up and Chrysler Imperial, from early this morning. Normally, Chrysler Imperial is a deep red, but the bud seems to have frosted over, wonder if it will open at all.
Posting for Cee Neuner’s Flower of the Day:
Self is in a nostalgic mood this rainy, gloomy Sunday in northern California.
Posting for Travel with Intent’s One-Word Sunday. The theme is SKYLINE.
Here’s Southbank by the Thames. Took these pictures leaving Shakespeare’s Globe after a play. The bridge is the old Blackfriars.
From the very beginning of his run for the presidency, and throughout his four years in office, Trump’s instinct was to govern like an authoritarian strongman rather than a democratically elected president . . . As president, Trump quickly made it clear that his appointees should be loyal to him personally, rather than to the law. When James Comey, the director of the FBI, was invited to a one-on-one dinner with the new president, Trump repeatedly asked him to proclaim his “loyalty.” Comey demurred and was fired a few months later. The letter sacking him was hand-delivered by a man who understood what the president meant by loyalty — Keith Schiller, Trump’s former bodyguard. At his first full Cabinet meeting, Trump extracted embarrassing pledges of loyalty from his cabinet members in front of the television cameras. Mike Pence, the vice president, set the slavish tone by proclaiming: “The greatest privilege of my life is to serve as vice president to the man who’s keeping his word to the American people.” Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff, thanked the president and called it a “blessing to serve your agenda.” “It’s an honor to be able to serve you,” declared Jeff Sessions, the attorney general.
— The Age of the Strongman, Chapter 7: Donald Trump, American Strongman
Question: Chris Krebs was fired by tweet. Why does Comey get the special treatment (letter hand-delivered by Keith Schiller)
There was a break in the rain! Self did a quick inspection tour of her garden.
Posting for Cee Neuner’s Flower of the Day.
Left to right: abutilon; Australian firecracker plant; lavatera
Took this photo from inside the house, and through a window screen. Plus, it was raining. Hence the slight blurring.
The neighbor was aiming empty bottles at our shared fence, and I had just peeked around the curtains to see if I could catch him at it. I saw the pictograph and thought: I wonder if that would make a nice picture?
Posting for Travel with Intent’s Six-Word Saturday:
Friends in New York City have been telling self about the sudden drop in temperature.
All clear here, on the northern California coast! Feeling lucky.
Posting for Hammad Rais’s Weekend Sky challenge.
Self was at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in November. It was cold. First thing every morning, she’d open the windows of her room and marvel at the view.
Posting for Travel with Intent’s Six Word Saturday.
Storm hit yesterday, so strong that it blew self’s golf umbrella inside out, and when she tried to right the spokes, the wind hit her smack in the face with driving rain. She got completely soaked: from head to toe.
There was not one weather advisory on the news, and self listens practically 24/7. After, the weather people said this storm would make “no difference” in the California drought, even though it’s supposed to continue for several more days. GRRRR.
Here’s a picture she took last week, in Ireland. It was rainy in Annaghmakerrig, but when she took this picture, she saw a man running by the lake, wearing only track pants and T-shirt. Go figure.
Love bushboy’s Last on the Card Challenge.
Self is in Dublin. Her last photo on the card was Saint Stephen’s Green on a gorgeous, sunny day that felt more like spring than winter.
Kanlaon 