July 1, 2022 at 5:42 pm (Links, postaday, The Economist)
Tags: blogs, bushboy's world, causes, Fridays, grief, heroes, inspiration, Last on the Card, memorial, photo challenge, politics, summer, transitions, Ukraine
Self is participating in bushboy’s Last on the Card Challenge.
Her Last on the Card for June 2022 is a real heartbreaker: Roman Ratushny’s obituary in The Economist of 25 June 2022.
A Ukrainian activist, Roman Ratushny volunteered the first day of the Russian invasion. He was killed near Izyum on 9 June. He was 24.
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June 18, 2022 at 8:41 pm (destinations, Flowers, Links, Places, postaday, Recommended)
Tags: blogs, Gardens, inspiration, Palo Alto, photo challenge, Saturdays, Six Word Saturday, summer, weekends
Self is a lover of gardens. In the past week, she’s visited two local ones: Filoli and Gamble Garden, looking for ideas for drought-resistant plantings.
She loved the planting combination in this flower border.
Posting this for Travel with Intent’s Six Word Saturday.
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May 30, 2022 at 5:38 am (Flowers, Links, Places, postaday, Recommended, Traveling)
Tags: Cee Neuner, England, Flower of the Day, Gardens, inspiration, Mondays, Oxford, photo challenge
The Merton Borders were sown in November 2011. The purpose was to create a natural plant environment by sowing, directly into the ground, seeds of plants that would not require intensive management (i.e. no artificial irrigation, no fertilizer).
This is how the Merton Borders look today. Posting for Cee’s Flower of the Day:
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March 6, 2022 at 7:41 pm (Artists and Writers, destinations, Food and Drink, Links, Lists, Places, postaday, Recommended, Sundays)
Tags: art, Cee Neuner, Golden Gate Park, inspiration, Marsha Ingrao, museums, Oakland, photo challenge, restaurants, San Francisco
Self is so far behind with this challenge, co-hosted by Cee Neuner and Marsha Ingrao. They’re actually on #38, so you can see how far behind self is.
Nevertheless, self has some pictures to share today, all of places in the San Francisco Bay Area:
- The LOVE sign is at the Apple Store, Union Square, downtown San Francisco.
- 2nd floor, de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
- Horn Barbecue in Oakland, an eatery that began just before the pandemic and, improbably, survived.
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March 6, 2022 at 2:02 pm (Calls, Places, Sundays, Wall Street Journal, Writing)
Tags: causes, history, inspiration, Ukraine
To refuse to countenance a war that does not speak its true name . . . you can no longer mumble the old excuse, “We didn’t know”; and now that you do know, can you continue to feign ignorance or content yourselves with mere token utterances of horrified sympathy?
— Simone de Beauvoir, French author and activist
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March 1, 2022 at 2:57 pm (Books, Recommended, Surprises)
Tags: American Revolution, history, inspiration, reading lists, US history
This post might make Washington out to be the most bloodthirsty sort, ever. It’s yet another one about Washington meting out swift — and final — justice.
In the hard winter of 1779- 1780, Washington finds himself with mutinies to suppress.
First, a mutiny on the Pennsylvania line, which was quelled by the New Jersey line.
Then, a mutiny of the New Jersey line, despite Washington having approved the execution of the Pennsylvania mutineers as a warning (the Pennsylvanians were tapped to carry out the executions, to rub it in more. Washington was absolutely savage in his messaging).
Despite . . . Washington’s efforts, two hundred men from the Jersey line mutinied shortly after the Pennsylvanians. Without hesitating, Washington assembled the ringleaders and executed most of them. The contagion was contained.
Washington’s Immortals, p. 228
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
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February 28, 2022 at 1:23 pm (Artists and Writers, Conversations, Eavesdropping, Flowers, postaday, Surprises)
Tags: Cee Neuner, inspiration, Mondays, news, photo challenge, politics
“Ukraine is still winning, 96 hours later. Good morning, world.” — Anastasiia Lapatina, The Kyiv Independent
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February 27, 2022 at 3:28 pm (Books, Recommended, Sundays)
Tags: American Revolution, history, inspiration, reading lists, US history
June 28, 1778: The British and the colonists square off at a site near present-day Freehold, New Jersey. The colonists are led by Gen. Charles Lee, the British by Gen. Henry Clinton.
“Lee planned to surround Clinton’s forces, but the strength of the opposition took him by surprise. After only an hour” the Rebels began a disorganized retreat. Washington was leading the bulk of his army towards the battleground when he began to encounter fleeing groups of soldiers. When he eventually met up with Lee, “Washington simply looked Lee in the eye and asked, whence arises this disorder and confusion, to which Lee had no real reply.” Washington then unleashed “a terrific eloquence of unprintable scorn . . . dismissed Lee and took charge of the battle . . . His presence stopped the retreat . . . His stately appearance on horseback, his calm, dignified courage . . . provoked a wave of enthusiasm among the troops.”
Washington to Lieut. Colonel Nathaniel Ramsay of the 3rd Maryland Regiment: “If you can stop the British for ten minutes, till I form, you will save my army!”
Ramsay’s response: “I will stop them or fall.”
Washington’s Immortals, pp. 184 – 185
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February 27, 2022 at 1:56 pm (Artists and Writers, Flowers, Links, Recommended, Sayings, Sundays)
Tags: art, Asian American Writers, Filipino writers, inspiration, poetry, wisdom

Self’s own painting of hyacinths
FREE
You were always free
Just thought yourself otherwise
Unthink + just be.
Listen for birdsong + trees.
If you want to reconnect.
- For many years, Joel Tan served as Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ Director of Educational Outreach. Then he moved to Kapaau, Hawaii and feels so joyful, he’s been posting a poem a day. This one’s from Feb. 26.
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February 20, 2022 at 5:12 am (Books, Recommended, Sundays)
Tags: American Revolution, history, inspiration, reading lists, US history
These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine Patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he, that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women.
— radical journalist Thomas Paine, author of the pamphlet series Common Sense
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