when a novice has shears

I cut off everything that seemed dead on my blueberry bush and admired how good what was left looked. Tonight I used my iPhone and discovered that what was left was an invasive Chinese berry and I had whacked all of the blueberry bush.

Long ago I planted an acuba in shade so dark it wasn't good even for an acuba and the poor thing grew leggy and looked terrible. Last fall I moved it and waited until this spring to see if it looked better. It didn't, but I was reassured that there were little sprigs at the bottom. I cut it all down, confident that the little sprigs at the bottom would be the start of new, healthy, happy growth. Tonight my iPhone said the little sprigs were not acuba. 

I've killed two plants. Neither was doing well but I'm annoyed at myself nonetheless. 

I could buy a new blueberry, and a cross-pollinator blueberry, but they like full sun, which I don't have, and the birds and chipmunks and squirrels get caught in the netting and are terrified when I try to set them free, so maybe I should just give it up. I can get more blueberries in one little box at the store anyway. 

This deer, and its companion, did make it safely across the street it was so determined to cross. 

I had a lovely lunch outdoors at a park with co-workers and now that I'm boss and I can call them interdepartmental meetings. 

I also got to see a robin running in my garden, dragging a piece of old vegetation (nest material). It is fun to see them checking out the underside of my deck and I look forward to one day having another nest up there. I have lots of leaves and little sparrows go looking for insects. 

I love that Ukraine doesn't claim credit for the little explosions because it means whenever anything goes wrong anywhere near the border, the Russians will assume it was them. According to the Washington Post today it is working. There have been at least 11 explosions since fighting began, most of them recent. The audacity of Russians thinking it is ok for them to invade Ukraine but not ok for Ukrainians to retaliate back in Russia is hard to fathom. 

Poland has sent 240 Soviet-style tanks to Ukraine, roughly half of what they have. In exchange, the UK has offered tanks to Poland and the US is selling 250 tanks to Poland. Poland's tanks more than offset all the tanks Ukraine has lost. 

The most important seller of Russian oil, Swiss Trafigura Group, has joined several competitors in cutting off Russian oil firm Rosneft. They will stop exporting Russian oil altogether. Oil is where Russia gets its real revenues.