purple heuchera thyrses

We made it through the week!
The week ended on a high note!
The week began with a meeting Monday morning at 7 am THAT I SET. 
Ugh.
And then Tuesday, a meeting at 7:45 am THAT I SET.
(When you are working with people in a different time zone, sometimes life sucks.)
The week ended with a nice note from the man who will be my boss. 
My new boss will be here in six weeks and I am so glad. 

We've had a heat wave that ends tomorrow but our heat wave has been nothing compared to the central area of the US. I read something very sad and then wondered why cow pastures don't have trees. 

One of the major threats to the Amazon is actually cattle raising. 

They don't have trees because the owners want the cows to eat grass and trees will impede grass growth. If they put out one tree, all the cows will huddle under that one tree and trash the grass. So plant more than one. Plant enough so that the cows can spread out and don't plant so many that grass can't grow. It turns out to be called silvopasture. Alas, it isn't simple. You have to match the animals to the trees and, most importantly, rotate the animals through different pasture areas. Maybe as the planet warms we'll do more of it though. 

Today is Iceland Independence Day. 

In Denmark people hung little boats from the ceilings in churches. The church my grandparents attended also has a boat hanging from the ceiling. The idea was nicely pagan in origin with the idea that this would protect fishermen at sea. I've wondered if Icelandic churches have boats hanging from the ceiling. There is at least one, in Akureyri. 


The Dutch caught a spy! Russians have been committing war crimes. The Ukrainians have been investigating and documenting them and expect to take them to the International Criminal Court one day. Apparently Russia is taking it seriously because they sent their spy to go and find out what investigations had found. The spy pretended to be Brazilian and had a long, deep cover including studying at a school in DC for foreign policy. Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov is on his way back to Brazil now. 


Sean Penn organized a benefit auction. Zelensky spoke, John Legend played, and they raised $2.5 million. 


Russia's fancy St. Petersburg International Economic Forum was hacked. Putin's speech had been billed as extremely important but a cyberattack delayed it for an hour. Cyberattacks began Thursday. 


Zelensky teleporting. Not really, but IT experts made a 3D hologram of him and beamed him to four tech festivals in Europe. Like Princess Leia of Star Wars. It turns out he made a Star Wars reference too. Ukraine has used the internet for distance learning, telemedicine, communication with friends and family, and connection with leaders.