I am basking right now, and it's glorious.

We left the area by flying out of Lukla. After our plane took off (dicey! look up that airport!), everything seemed fine, but then a flight attendant suddenly looked down out of the window with a look of absolute horror on her face.

Never did find out why.

I trekked through the Everest area in 2001. Our small group of Americans all had the strangest dreams, every night. And too many unexplained incidents of locked doors blown open during the night, odd trail interactions, animals not behaving right, weird coincidences.

Oh! Well then

Yes, we were privileged enough to have a backyard and access to parks. Not everyone was, and 2020 was far worse for them.

In retrospect, I'm not sure what society should have done differently. The isolation did generational damage, esp to kids, but the COVID deaths were already overwhelming.

The social isolation of COVID was awful. But we found ways to socialize safely - outside, chiefly. I remember lots of short social hikes, outdoor meals, etc. And this photo came up in my FB memories today: band practice, but distanced and outside! Neighbors came over to visit and listen.

My dad played tuba professionaly. He gigged in NOLA jazz bands and random brass quintets quite often.

Some years after he died, I was in downtown Newport RI over the holidays with my spouse, and a nearby brass quintet started playing Christmas carols. I broke down, missing him.

So. Yeah. ❤️

Look, the Himalaya are 100% haunted, ask me how I know

Fancy bug! Probably too small for me?

Just want to point out that Old South Church has a prominent “God Loves Trans People” banner hanging almost next to the Boston Marathon finish line. 💜

Photo of laurel-crowned Sharon Lokedi being interviewed by WCVB, with the banner visible behind them. Yesss.

I disagree. The point is to win. To get power in the Senate. And it's entirely possible for Colom to beat Cindy Hyde-Smith, who seems to be only barely tolerated, at least in the area of Mississippi I've been in lately.

The vote turnout needs to be intense to make it happen, though.

Yellowish rocks comprise most of this outcrop scene. Darker, brown rocks cap the outcrop. Trees and vegetation are widespread. There is a person for scale at centre left.

See those yellowish rocks?

They're about 1.4 billion years old.

The rocks on top are around 500 million years old.

This is part of the Great Unconformity, where almost a billion years of Earth's history is just... missing.

Absolutely incredible.

NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman, who commanded Artemis II, took this footage from the far side of the Moon with his iPhone.

Watch with sound on.

A Newly Discovered Recording Lets You Hear Delta Blues Legend Robert Johnson in Stunning Clarity Great swathes of rock music since the nineteen-sixties would never have existed, we're sometimes told, were it not for the recordings of Robert Johnson. Certainly the likes of Keith Richards, Eric Cla...

Holy SHIT someone found the test pressing of Robert Johnson's Cross Road Blues and it is clear as a PIN www.openculture.com/2026/04/reco...

Whoa. Full-body chills.

How a retired cranberry bog helped change the game for wetland restoration The largest restored wetlands in Massachusetts now cover hundreds of acres of what used to be cranberry farms.

Interesting restoration work going on in Massachusetts.

apnews.com/article/cran...

Anaphalis margaritacea - Wikipedia

Oh. There's the etymology for Anaphalis margaritacea, common name "pearly everlasting." TIL!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphal...

Decreased. Boston area.

These are calling out to me. Trees! And they will go with almost everything I wear!

If they haven't been claimed, I would like them. Thanks.

1990: Girls, you should be ASHAMED for getting pregnant and having kids so young!

2026: Girls, you should be ASHAMED for not having more babies!

We always know who's gonna be the scapegoat.

Spending a lot of time ripping out crab grass by hand so my clover can take root out back, and it has me meditating a lot on what it means to take out fascists.

We always used to say it was whack-a-mole, it wasn't.

Successful antifascism in a democracy is a practice of weeding

Very true! Thanks.

It’s less effective than reading out loud, but reformatting my writing in a different typeface, size, and line width helps me read it with a fresher eye, too.

What is known about their cold tolerance?

There's a mature Franklinia at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, or at least there used to be. I saw it once in flower and fell in love with it.

It is available as nursery stock around here, and I tried planting one at my home, but it really didn't take. I hear they don't transplant well.

So many! And we have a huge stack of cut logs from an arborist operation last year (had them tidy up downed trees and invasive Norways and other messes), and I'm sure that's harboring a lot of animal and fungal life right now.

The native plants are trying, but the rabbits keep mowing them down.

The bumblebee queens are out! Isn't she cute?

(I also found a yellowjacket queen, according to iNat, but I didn't know what I was looking at and let her go free. Hope I don't have to destroy a yellowjacket ground nest later this spring. Ugh.)

Pairs well with this classic, sung to the tune of... well, you know.

That being said, who knows what the job market will be like during the coming unraveling. And it’s not something everyone can take up as a second or third career.

My college kid is in environmental engineering, which honestly seems like a farsighted choice. The built environment will keep existing, and adapting it will absolutely be necessary over the next few decades.