Happy New Year!

Froggie went a’courtin’ …
frogs mating in the
swimming pool to usher in
the new year (see below).

Perhaps We the People should take heed of this Froggie couple and, as we wave a grateful farewell to 2020, pledge, for 2021, to “make love, not war”?

News blues…

Dr Fauci will become chief Covid advisor to the Biden administration. This, after Fauci’s frustration and struggles with the Trump administration. Fifty-two years as a public servant:  (20:00 mins)

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Covidiot is a peculiarly American phenomena whereby certain Americans apparently believe wearing masks, social distancing, and hand hygiene does not apply to them... and that coronavirus is a hoax. Moreover, since they are American and thus “free,” they can act “free.” Behold, an example of a Covidiot practicing covidiocy:

A store clerk was left amazed by a customer who had cut a hole in her Covid-19 face mask because it 'makes it easier to breathe'.
Joe Samaan was working his shift at an S J Food Mart outside Lexington, Kentucky, when a woman came in asking to pay for gas.
But unlike the hundreds of other customers Joe sees on a daily basis, the hole in this woman's protective facewear, which left her mouth and nose exposed, caught his eye. Here’s the incredible moment Kentucky Covidiot explains she has cut a hole in her face mask because it 'makes it easier to breathe'  

Healthy planet, anyone?

Amid 2020’s gloom, there are reasons to be hopeful about the climate in 2021 

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Iceland - an example for the rest of us...

Isolated and challenged by a harsh climate and battered by the financial crisis of 2008, Iceland has successfully moved away from fossil fuels and shifted to 100% electricity production from renewable sources.
The island nation has developed high-tech greenhouses to grow organic vegetables and embraced sustainable fish farming, ecotourism, breakthrough processes for carbon capture and disposal, and efforts to restore the forests that were lost in earlier centuries https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2020/dec/30/icelands-innovations-to-reach-net-zero-in-pictures

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

My mother has been released from hospital back to the Care Center where, I’m told, she’s “doing well,” eating (Jungle Oats), sleeping, and will begin her physiotherapy regime ASAP.
Jessica The Dog, back at the house, is settling in , too. She still acts depressed, but her tail curls over her back again, she roly-polies on the grass when I encourage her to walk in the garden, she’s eating like a trooper, and monkeys are scarce due to her vigilance. She enjoys barking.

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Word is getting around among the frog population that the garden pond is sufficiently crowded with mating “courting” frogs, that a couple desiring privacy might try the swimming pool. That, or courting frogs have discovered that I’ve become quite the Swimming Pool Gal with vastly improved pool maintenance skills.
Yesterday, after I cleaned and flushed the pool filter, sprinkled chlorine granules, and refreshed the chlorine-dispensing “floaters”, I discovered this amorous couple producing meters-/yards-long strings of eggs. (the videos aren’t perfect but they give the gist….)
I removed the strings of eggs -the long black stream shown in the video - then discovered another batch of eggs – at least a cupful - in one of the pool filter baskets. The small, round, black eggs, encased in a translucent, flexible, and strong string would be, under normal conditions of froggie mating, wound around reeds, lilies, and other pond vegetation.
Given how many hundreds of eggs one frog-mating couple produces, it’s clear the planet and it’s amphibians are in way worse shape than even I, a pessimist, imagined.

Frogs mating - December 31, 2020.

And, a couple more videos for your new year's viewing pleasure (no ads!)

Rhombic night adder

Masked weaver building a nest

Egyptian Geese