more sweet than silly

I didn't say it but I had a perfectly lovely day yesterday, an end to a perfectly lovely, wonderful week with someone else now in that horrible job. The job was horrible because it was 90% reading and responding to emails. I was wrong. It was 100% reading and responding to emails. This week I discovered that I'd been missing some. 

Today was another perfectly lovely day at work.
But wait, today was Saturday and you work a standard M-F job?
Ha!
But it only required a couple of hours and they were perfectly lovely ones. 

I also walked Samuel and painted teak oil on my storage bench and cut down and washed a bunch of basil. 

I have the ambition to 
- make pesto
- make enchiladas
this weekend. I spent so much time washing basil leaves (run little bugs, run!) that decided to wait until tomorrow to make pesto. Enchiladas can wait too. I didn't even grow that much basil, but apparently still much more than I can eat. 

I also had tons of fun researching the newest volcano in Iceland. Iceland already had three hiking routes. They are different distances and take you to different vantage points. It sounds like it is quite rigorous. There were possibly a thousand tourists there yesterday. The volcano is great for tourism because it is in an accessible location near roads and not far from the airport. 


Main photo - my neighbor who had Covid and a birthday has now tested negative, twice, but was stir crazy with isolation. We went for a walk and her husband, who has Covid, joined us. He is fatigued. Samuel adores him so it took discipline to keep from petting him. Soon Samuel, soon. 


The extra is of a dahlia. I'm not saying I was jealous, ok, I was jealous. You guys posted so many beautiful dahlia pictures last year, especially Kate, that I wanted one. Then this year some of you mentioned going to the nursery and buying dahlia plants and my nursery didn't have any ... until they had this one. Maybe I shouldn't say I was jealous, I was "inspired."


A new report out of Yale says that Western sanctions and the corporate exodus have ravaged the Russian economy and there is no way back. Over 1000 companies have curtailed operations or left. This is 40% of Russia's GDP and 30 years worth of foreign investment. This has also led to a technological crisis. They can't import smartphones or data servers or networking equipment. The internet company is running short of semiconductor chips. Manufacturers have no way to fill the gaps left by the inability to import. 


The ruble bounced back - but it cost Russia to make it happen. They restricted the flow of money out of the country. They had a 20% interest rate hike. Their financial markets are the worst performing in the world this year. The government has a budget deficit for the first time in years. Even with petrodollars the foreign reserves are falling. The ruble's recovery also reflects the collapse of imports. 


As the EU phases out of Russian energy/as Russia cuts the EU off from energy, Russia will have a really difficult time with finances. The sanctions are weakening the economy. 


Meanwhile, everyone who can is fleeing. The richest and most educated citizens have left and taken their assets with them. At least 500,000 Russians have fled with many of them highly skilled workers in competitive industries. Russia will probably become poorer, despite minimum wage and pension income hikes. The number will probably double or triple. 


France gave Ukraine some VAB armored personnel carriers, now in use. 


Russian service members in Kherson are going into local homes and putting on plain clothes so they can desert. Ukrainian forces have liberated 46 settlements in Kherson Oblast.


There is practically a news blackout in Russia of war deaths but stories are seeping out. 


In Ukraine people are doing their best to speak Ukrainian. If they don't know the language, they are learning it. When Putin indicated he was going to invade people began saying, "this is my last tweet in Russian" on Twitter. 


The first CONVOY of ships carrying grain sailed from Odessa.