Turn your backs to the cold wind

[sovay]

What is going on is that I am in a spectacularly bad way, physically, even for me, and the doctor to whom I would normally have taken my problems is out of the office for another week yet and I am not having a great deal of success with their covering team; hence I have not been much present lately and spent the whole of last night lying on a couch, re-reading assorted Dick Francis and James Clavell's King Rat (1962) for the first time in decades. On the other hand, my mother has hatched all nine of her monarchs successfully and the next round of caterpillars is already rippling through the milkweed. The youngest of this set must be Random by age and coloration, but also because it remained inside its chrysalis until everyone who had been awaiting its entrance with bated breath was out of the room for a minute and then modestly slipped out and began to dry its wings blamelessly in the sun. I have also been reading Jen Manion's Female Husbands: A Trans History (2021) and it's great. Before this afternoon, I had never heard of the hibakujumoku, the A-bombed trees.

Comments

[asakiyume]

I was noticing a dearth of posts from you. I'm sorry to hear this. I'm glad for the news about the monarchs, though. I took a 1-minute-plus video of one in my yard, drinking clover nectar. They're lovely to watch.

It figures that a gingko would be among the survivors. "That measly one megaton? My kind survives asteroid strikes, bitches!"

[redbird]

Thank you for the article about the hibakujumoku.

[yhlee]

*support support*

[mme_hardy]

I hope you get a good doctor, and better, soon.

[isis]

Oh gosh no, feel better soon, I hope I hope!

(I loved King Rat even though the first time I read it I was probably far too young to understand or appreciate it.)

[thistleingrey]

Glad of the new caterpillars.

[rachelmanija]

Oh no. Physical stuff is horrible. I hope Dick Francis was comforting.

[rachelmanija]

Thank you for the essay on the hibakujumoku. I never heard of them before, and the essay is extraordinary.

[selkie]

Thank you for those trees.

*hugs*

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, I am sorry. *offers internet hugs*

[cmcmck]

Hugs

[gwynnega]

I hope you feel better soon. I'm happy to hear about the butterflies and the new caterpillars.

[aurumcalendula]

*hugs*

[pameladean]

I'm so sorry. *hugs* Your other news is so lovely. I'm just about to read about the trees, but I rejoice in the monarchs. There's a great deal of milkweed hereabouts, from little boulevard gardens in the city to state parks, and for the first time this year we've seen monarch caterpillars munching on it. Long may they wave.

P.

[cyphomandra]

Oh no, I’m so sorry to hear that. Thank you for the fascinating links and I hope that Dick Francis was suitably consolatory.

[mrissa]

Best of luck with the doctor-wrestling, which always has to happen just when one has the least energy for it, harumph.

[oracne]

Sending good medical thoughts.

[nineweaving]

Monarchs! How glorious!

Thank you so much for the beautiful, thoughtful article about the hibakujumoku. I liked what the elderly consult had to say about the rhetoric of winning. "Their name in Japanese is hibakusha, literally ‘person exposed to the bomb.’ ... This term was chosen rather than ‘survivors’ because that word, by exalting those who had remained alive, would have inevitably offended the many who died in the tragedy."

Hoping for an upturn in your wellbeing.

Nine

[genarti]

I think I had heard of the hibakujumoku, but I'm not 100% sure; I certainly hadn't read that article, and it was beautiful. Thank you for the link!

Dick Francis is comfort-and-distraction fare par excellence, in my opinion. I'm glad you've been finding it the same, but sorry you have reason to need it. I hope the health stuff improves posthaste.

One of my friends circles had a zoom salon of poetry reading last week; I read your "Σειρήνοιϊν," because it's been one of my favorites since you first posted it yoyears and I thought they'd appreciate it. I was right about that, and it was very well received. This seemed like something the poet ought to know.

[thawrecka]

Sending you internet hugs in support, if wanted.