Finished reading Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookshop and Ajax Penumbra 1969, both by Robin Sloan. I’ve read his newsletter for a while so I figured it was time to start catching up on his books, especially with a new one coming out this year. Sourdough and its associated novella are next.

Our lilac bush is blooming and the scent makes me so happy. You can smell it all around the house. It’s always one of the highlights of spring. And then I walked up to my favorite coffee shop this morning and caught the scent again. They have a bush there also. Wonderful, wonderful.

Apropos of nothing, I’m thinking this morning about how a series of ironclad mutual defense agreements marched everyone into WW1.

My in-laws are preparing for retirement and so are paring down their possessions. They gave us this antique table, guessing (rightly) that I might like to refinish it. Really, it’s just the top that needs work; the rest of it is lovely. And it’s from a Hoosier manufacturer, likely 100 years old.

It is always better to pray for peace than for the defeat of your enemies because there is no standpoint from which you can definitively answer the question, “Are we the baddies?”

I know…it’s a TED talk. But trust me, this one is good: “Let your garden grow wild.” Relatedly, this presentation by Doug Tallamy is the very thing that got Rachel involved in my fledgling garden project two years ago—and it has improved immensely since she got involved.

Tom Shippey’s marvelous exposition of Tolkien’s Ringwraiths.

My employer says they will be celebrating National Deskfast Day this Friday by supplying coffee and donuts.

Deskfast was a term coined in the early 2000s when it was discovered that more and more employees were eating breakfast at their desks.

This feels like a thing to be mourned, not celebrated.

Beautiful, short film about 85 year old Helen Dew:

For Helen, a key element in building personal and community resilience is in building quality soil. From making biochar for her compost to petitioning the local council to create a natural burial park, she has worked tirelessly in so many ways to contribute to her community and to the planet. She is truly Something Beautiful for the World!

And the poem she wrote–which she reads in the film–is not to be missed.

A quick video of the moment the eclipse happened at our house. You can hear some of the neighbors cheering.