We can probably all agree that the US has gotten a little crazy no matter which side of the political fence one embraces. Most of my "professional" life was spent helping students understand language and words, training them to be able to be expressive without having to resort to either threats or violence. Many of you may also know that I have a very dim view of the notion that parents can teach their children better than any teacher can. A case in point is happening in Florida, where else? 

One mother of a young student in Florida demanded that the Amanda Gorman inaugural poem be removed from her child's classroom because it violated her own ideas. My question after reading the latest news this morning is how would she know? Read what she admitted to:

 

From Politico 5/26--

Salinas added that she is Christian, has Jewish friends and enjoys watching the Israeli Netflix series Fauda.

She also revealed that she only read snippets of the books that she sought to ban at the education center. The books include The ABCs of Black History, poetry by Langston Hughes and books on Cuba, all of which she has criticized for “indirect hate messages”, references to critical race theory and gender indoctrination.

“They have to read for me because I’m not an expert,” Salinas told JTA. “I’m not a reader. I’m not a book person. I’m a mom involved in my children’s education.”

 

So she wants the poem removed even though she did not read it and apparently cannot read it. She also says she is involved in her children's education but what she clearly should be involved in is her own education. I don't believe that she needs to espouse my own political beliefs or ideas but she should at least understand the point of language, words, poetry, etc. She admitted to congregating with the Proud Boys and sharing antisemitic tropes as well. 

If you have never seen "Gentleman's Agreement" with Gregory Peck you might want to check it out to see what saying nonsense like, "I watch Israeli tv so I can't be antisemitic" is not just ridiculous but insulting.

 Peonies are among my favorite flowers so moving back east where they are more common made getting some new ones imperative as well. We had brought a few from Utah as our small yard there did not have grass but we did have all sorts of flowers. Peonies pretty much need a change of seasons or at least that's my understanding, and we have singles, and doubles, and colors ranging from white to burgundy and moving through all the pink or pinkish colors on the way there. At least those were the colors up until this year. 

Five years ago, right after some yahoo poisoned my coonhound making us choose to leave the house we had just moved into, I saw that there were some new varieties that included yellow peonies. I had a sort of yellow tree peony in Utah but it wasn't even that yellow. These new plants that were a combination of herbaceous and tree peonies were far more interesting to me so I ordered three plants and put them in the ground.

There was no luck for four years. The first year here I thought it might be because I had planted them too late for spring bloom so I left them. After another year of no blooms (the third year by now), I decided to try moving them again so that fall I lifted them higher. Aargh! Still no blooms so I waited until fall again and lifted all of them one inch higher, discovering in the process that one had "calved" so now I had four plants to deal with. Well that did the trick, or at least 3/4 of the trick. Three of the four plants are not only blooming but in such abundance and so magnificently that for the past ten days my husband and I have been standing in awe just looking at them.

As I wrote, they are not the only peony plants we have and where they are planted now they alternate with some enormous double peonies in burgundy. I had my husband take photos of those and of the current amaryllis blooming in a front bed. That's right, folks, against all odds, I have yet another amaryllis (mostly known as a Christmas gift flower that blooms once inside and then gets tossed), blooming and this time with five flowers on one stalk and another three flowered stalk following behind. The burgundy peonies are 9 inches across and the yellow ones are slightly smaller at about 7 inches. Each plant except one has at least ten blooms and that one will have to be lifted higher again in September. At my advanced age I was never entirely sure I would live long enough to see these flowers which I hope isn't some sort of omen for what happens next.

 

    

In the functional part of the garden, we now have some small green tomatoes, we have tons of asparagus and lots of mesclun, some collard greens and soon some green beans. The newest element in our food garden will be strawberries. We had a pretty steep hill section next to a sidewalk which made the seriously angled slope mowing hard. Even though my husband is even older than I am, he insists on doing his own mowing still but that was too much for him so he skimmed off the grass, added compost and good soil, and planted 75 strawberries. He got 25 June bearing and 50 ever bearing and right now they are all living up to those descriptions. In front of those, I planted about 100 potato starts of three different varieties. Most people seem to be unaware that home grown potatoes are so different from store potatoes that they might as well be a different food altogether. It's always too much for the two of us but overplanting is the only way I know to be sure that I have enough for any meal. Our neighbors do like the distribution of excess though some are getting a wee too proprietary about it for me, now asking when the tomatoes (or whatever) will be ready. I am happy to share, but if they act as though they already own the fruits of my labor they may be surprised.

If there are more typos than usual here, I apologize. I am getting used to a new laptop whose keyboard is bigger and more complicated.

 Happy Mother's Day. I know  it is an American tradition but it's nice in a world that doesn't really value mothers. I have one son visiting now and we are having porchetta sandwiches for dinner with Italian veggies.

My other son is coming in July with his wife. He actually made a request this week for me to make him a bomber jacket with classic quilt blocks. We'll see.

 I have sort of completed the center section of the current project. The last photo was at the halfway point. The biggest reason I qualify my statement with that pesky "sort of" is that this section then needs an ogee type scroll around the floral center and then it will be appliqued to the triangle corner sections. That means the only part of the scroll line that has to be marked is the interior line. 

Anyway, here it is:

The diagonal orientation is the correct alignment. I am thinking of using the cornflower blue fabric for the scroll line. The outer corners are the same fabric, or they will be once I cut them, but that wasn't my original plan. Once I saw how the original small floral fabric looked I thought that the contrast was not very pleasing. It's hard to explain why but my reaction to the wrong fabric is usually pretty clear--some fabrics sing and some fabrics croak.

Trump is so dumb that he has made public defamatory statements again about E. Jean Carroll. I don't know what will happen because of that but I certainly hope his fine increases.

 Now that the verdict is in and digested, Trump is complaining that he never had a chance to defend himself in court. Forget the part about his lawyer, Tacopina of the tight suits, telling him that it would not be a good idea for him to testify. Forget about the part where Trump went off to play golf, what else, instead of making himself available for questioning. 

I have three adult children--very adult at this point. Trump's behavior and statements remind me of my children when they were around three years old. All the experts always told new parents to watch out for the terrible twos but with my sons it was the truly awful threes. That's what Trump acts like. 

I am making very good progress on the new project with the center section completely done at this point. This is not going to be a bed sized quilt, more of a large wall hanging. I have been getting rid of the blue ink and embroidering details on that center. It's easier for me to do the embroidery when the piece is smaller so I am adding veins and details. I am also adding some small embroidery details around some of the pieces that are pale in color to make them stand out better against the cream colored Kona cotton background. Pictures will be coming soon.

 "Oh Frabjous Day!" It took the NY jury less than 3 hours to not only find Trump guilty of sexual battery and defamation but they also worked out the appropriate fines for those charges. Unfortunately, Trump does not have to sign up for the sexual offenders registry, but he will have to pay about $5 million dollars for the two counts (3M for the defamation and 2M for the sexual battery).

Once again I point a finger at those who voted for that crude, rude, and disgusting man. You Trumpettes knew the man was all of those things but you voted for him anyway. Trump has to make a public statement refuting his defamatory statements. What are you Trumpettes going to do for your own culpability?

 Trump, by the latest news reports is still in Doonbeg, Ireland, but he says he is coming back to defend himself in his rape and defamation trial. Somebody should have told him that the trial closed already. Just another instance of Trump trying to take advantage of news and media, not the law, to dominate the airwaves. If you or I claimed that we were too busy playing golf to come to court, the court would have noted that as a point against us. In Trump's case, the judge apparently said that Trump has until Sunday to agree to testify.

Oh, come on. We live in a country that is supposed to be equal for all, for bad and good people and for uncomfortable and happy times. Trump had ample opportunity to come to court. He isn't above the law but if he gets this freebie, he might just be above the law. None of us can do what Trump does and get away with it, not that any of us who didn't vote for Trump would. The news media keeps using the excuse that Trump is running for office but that should be more reason to hold him to account rather than less. Even if you like Trump you should not applaud this latest move because the repercussions are too bad to even contemplate.

Next time you get in trouble with the law, leave the country and see what happens. Even Trumpettes know why this is wrong, but it's unlikely that they will complain. Some of them apparently think Trump is the second coming. If that isn't simply delusional I don't know what is.