I am so lucky. My 15 year old dog runs, jumps, humps, plays. 

I have a question. If you have massive amounts of basil you use it all up by making pesto. 
If you have massive amounts of chives, is there something you can do to use it all up?

My neighbor gave me some Thai basil so I made a stir fry. I haven’t made a stir fry in I do not know how long. I used to have a wok. If I had soy sauce I could make a Thai crispy omelette tomorrow morning. We need to get some soy sauce. 

Thank you for your sympathy regarding the volcano. Ok, the volcano may be done for, but the pictures of the aurora borealis in Iceland are AMAZING, especially the ones taken by people who know what they are doing and have a nice foreground, especially one with water. 

When the Russians invaded and took over Chernobyl they took the Ukrainian flag and shut down all the cameras. There was a little camera in the booth, operated by a tour company. Tour operators started to count the number and type of military vehicles and passed it to Ukraine’s military and intelligence agency. For weeks, 10 employees, family, and neighbors went into fields and forests to find cellphone service so they could send notes to Kyiv. 

It is really hard to occupy a country whose people don’t want you. Individual citizens and businesses find ways to resist. 

Aleksey Arestovich, an advisor to Zelensky’s office, said some days ago that he is certain the West is no longer discussing whether Ukraine will win, but what to do with the fall of the Putin regime. Retired US Army General Mark Hertling said yesterday that Russia is currently on defense while Ukraine is able to pick where they attack. Russia’s goals were beyond its capability. Reducing their goals didn’t help. Russian troops are poorly-led, ill-trained, and with low morale. Ukraine is emphasizing Russia’s weakness by putting broken, rusting Russian tanks in the center of Kyiv as an open-air military museum. 

There is an artist in Kyiv’s historic Independence Square painting a large, steel antes tank obstacle called a hedgehog. She is using a form of traditional Ukrainian decorative art. She expects to be done in time for Ukraine’s Independence Day, Aug 24. She is videotaping it so everyone can watch. 

A drone hit Russia’s naval headquarters in Crimea. Media outlet Nexta TV tweeted a video of it and, “Occupiers in #Crimea didn’t start their morning with coffee.” 

The Kakhovka bridge was being used by Russia to transport military equipment to the occupied Kherson region. Ukraine bombed it. Russia’s military managed to restore it. Ukraine bombed it again. 

In 1968 the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia. They wanted to crush a reform movement. Czechs are sending 1,968 crowns, about US$80, to Ukraine to help it defend itself. There is an account set up by Ukraine’s embassy in the Czech Republic to collect the funds.