Virus pandemic as forest fire

Trump’s Covid-19 Failures Miss Key Lessons From 1918 Pandemic  (6:55 mins)

News blues…

US daily Covid-19 hospitalizations are inching closer to 100,000 - the highest they've ever been.  (2:22 mins)

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What Needs To Happen Before The COVID-19 Pandemic Is Considered Over?

There needs to be a whole new approach to confronting the virus before the pandemic can be considered over or resolved, said Daniel B. Fagbuyi, an emergency room physician in Washington, D.C. That starts with leadership and a more coordinated, national pandemic plan.
“It is clear that the pandemic response and messaging has been mediocre,” Fagbuyi said. The cessation of this pandemic clearly begins with national leadership change, a change of the old guard and a visionary that embraces science.”

…Steps that will bring the coronavirus pandemic under control and how long it might take to get back to "normal."  

Healthy planet, anyone?

Something a little different in this segment today: a celebration of artists over 12,500 years: “Tens of thousands of ice age paintings across a cliff face shed light on people and animals….” 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

After four decades of living in California – dry summers and cold, wet, dark winters – I’m rediscovering KZN weather: warm, wet summers and cold, dry winters. I love KZN weather.
My attempts over the past couple of years to grow veggies failed because I misunderstood my garden nemesis: the cutworm.
Destructive cutworms attack seedlings at or just below the soil surface. The trick to avoiding that damage? Sew seedlings early-to-mid August, before the rains begin late September, early October. August, of course, is also the time neighborhood monkeys are most hungry. Seedlings that avoid cutworms encounter monkeys. Not a single beet/beetroot I planted survived the monkeys. All beets were uprooted, ditto green onions. Potatoes take a beating but thrive. Zucchini (“baby marrows”) do better as monkeys gnaw the young fruit while still on the plant. Half a zucchini is better than no zucchini – and just as delicious – and I gleefully harvest them.

Week 3 - Day 19, Tuesday April 14

Question of the Day: Whither Democracy?

 No truly “fair and balanced” person can watch the president of the United States and not worry. Check out this April 14 press briefing  and this one, “Presidential authority is total” ...
Methinks the prez doth protest too much. He’s losing whatever marbles he had, he’s on the ropes (talking of ropes, Florida deems wrestling “essential business.”)
Be afraid. Be very afraid. The Trump/Moscow Mitch duo hath cometh – and hath bamboozled.
It’s a formidable opponent for generous-spirited people everywhere.

Jailbirds flying the coop?

• Paul Manafort, set for release from Rikers prison in November 2024, seeks early release citing risk from coronavirus. 
• Ditto, Bernie Madoff, 81-year-old financial fraud schemester par excellence.
• Ditto, Michael Avenatti, convicted extortionist, busily working himself out of jail for 90 days. The Trump nemesis faces two more criminal trials.
• If I was a betting woman, I’d bet Harvey Weinstein is leveraging the coronavirus pandemic, too. And Bill Cosby. Cushy mansion/house arrest, instead?
• No ruling has been issued on a similar motion from twenty-eight-year-old Reality Winner, former intelligence analyst. Given the politics, I’d bet Winner, “leaker”/ whistleblower of a top-secret report on Russian election interference, is refused. She’s sentenced to prison for more than five years…and I’d bet she serves ‘em all.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

I’ve alluded to KZN’s astonishingly fertile soil, that I can pluck a stem and push it into the earth and, pronto, it sprouts.
Last year’s veggie garden presented both the up- and downside of fertility.
Upside: already rich soil, amended with rich compost, and potatoes, onions, and squash volunteer with gusto. Initially, starter plants - tomatoes, spinach (chard in California), strawberries, thyme, oregano, basil, and Thai basil - appear willing to flourish.
Downside:

The enthusiasm of beans, peas, and lettuce is quickly dampened by uMswenya. Cutworms.
California’s dry summers, wet winters, and clayey soil present few opportunities to understand cutworms. Sow bugs, yes: similar color and shape and, like cutworms, they roll/curl.
KZN’s wet, hot, humid summers present perfect umswenya conditions. Add beans, peas, dill, lettuce, rhubarb… and the gross, juicy pests thrive just below soil surface. They demolish emerging sprouts and stems leaving only tiny scattered flecks of green.
I engineered seedling collars out of discarded toilet roll tubes cut in half. Unfortunately, collaring constrains plants and they grow spindly.
My revenge? Popping unswenya.
This year, only volunteer squash survived cutworms. Instead, they fell victim to marauding monkeys.
Takeaways? 1) How do farmers cope? 2) Do creatures like umswenya and monkeys account for Africa’s incredibly rich, fecund soils not developing as the world’s breadbasket?

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I’m the only South African I know who sleeps (or admits to sleeping) under a mosquito net.
Divebombing and sucking mosquitos are annoying but manageable. I dab smelly, homemade cannabis oil on the bites. (Lockdown means not worrying about wafting cannabis aroma.)
Alas, the manufacturer and dispenser who supplied me last year has moved on. I’m not sure how to replenish my supply but I’m using what remains, mostly on spider bites.
Despite consistently checking for spiders inside gum boots, shoes, waders, and outside gear, spiders express their displeasure at my presence. This year, they’ve dined on my right calf, left foot, sternum, and left wrist. The latest assault left a large red splotch with two tiny, raised bite marks on my right front hip.
If I don’t scratch, the angry red bumps disappear after eight to ten days of generous dabbing.
The odd thing? Unlike mosquitos, I’ve never actually caught a spider in the act, nor even found one on my person.
Why blame spiders? Couldn’t aliens from another planet be conducting experiments?
Well, I encounter spiders and evidence of spiders: on plants, on walls, and webs slung between plants and anywhere I walk.
When I encounter aliens, it’ll be time for me to burst out of lockdown, damn the consequences.

A positive note: finally snagged a shot of a dragonfly near the pond. (Still no sign of goldfish.)





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