These strawberries are not quite in season

We wish really good strawberries would arrive soon. Until then we’ll keep drowning the substandard ones we’re buying — in hopes they’re the real deal — in alcohol.

Strawberry Mojitos

• 2 large strawberries
• 1-2 sugar cubes
• 4 mint leaves
• 1 1/2 oz rum
• tonic water

In the bottom of a Collins glass muddle the strawberries, mint and sugar. Top with rum and a few ice cubes. Fill glass with tonic water. The drink can be strained before the tonic water is added to remove the pulp. We enjoyed the drink both ways.

Or…  Is having an ordinary life thought to mean it’s a meaningless life?

Its awkward and difficult when I’m put on the spot sometimes.

Getting past that was something of a triumph as I grew in my career; but that wasn’t all there was to it because somewhere along the line, I began to wonder too if vulnerability is our most accurate measure of courage.

This topic is deep. I had no idea just how much I’d learn by review of my life’s experience while listening to this one hour video — oh my!
Actually, I watched it twice.

Here’s one for you:

If someone said “What’s the difference between shame, guilt, humiliation, and embarrassment?” would you be able to respond with the knowledge work — the knowing from your experiences what’s the difference — the crux of what’s the struggles from the lifelong learning?

Brené Brown
The Power of…

This video from Britain is called BBC wildlife Documentary – The BADGERS Secrets of the Sett – full length – David Attenborough.

From Wildlife Extra:

Independent badger cull monitors will not be asked to oversee again

The second year of the badger cull in Somerset and Gloucestershire will not be monitored by The Independent Experts Panel, the Government has revealed.

The news was criticised by Labour MP Maria Eagle who accused the Government of ignoring advice they didn’t like or didn’t want to hear.

“Now ministers have confirmed that they will not allow further expert scrutiny of their disastrous policy when the cull resumes later this year. What do the Tories do if they don’t like the independent scientific advice they get? Stop asking for advice,” she says.

Maria Eagle MP, Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary, asked the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs at Parliamentary Questions:…

This video about nazi Germany is called Ravensbrück Concentration Camp.

By Gwyn Griffiths in Wales:

Book review: An extraordinary tale of a ruined life rebuilt in Wales

Tuesday 29th April 2014

A Haven From Hitler

by Heini Gruffudd

(Y Lolfa 9.95)

A haven from Hitler not only shows the fragility of society and the resilience of the human spirit, it’s also the story of one woman and her extraordinary family.

Written by Swansea lecturer Heini Gruffudd it is a translation of Yr Erlid, winner of the 2013 Welsh Language Book Of The Year prize.

It is mostly the story of Gruffudd’s mother Kate Bosse-Griffiths and her life in Wittenberg, Germany from the early 1920s on, with the gradual coming to power of the nazis and the horrors facing a Jewish family as anti-semitism gathers pace. Eventually she arrived in Wales, married and made a valuable and…

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Tao Te Ching

Verse 64

What is at rest is easily managed.
What is not yet manifest is easy to prevent.
What is rooted is easy to nourish.
What is brittle is easy to break.
What is small is easy to scatter.

Put things into order before they exist.
Prevent trouble before it arises.
The giant pine tree grows from a tiny seedling.
A tower nine stories high starts with a single brick.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Rushing into action, you fail.
Trying to grasp things, you lose them.
By forcing a project to completion,
you ruin what was almost ripe.
People usually fail when they are on the verge of success.
So give as much care at the end as at the beginning,
and there will be no failure.

The Master takes action
by letting things take their course.
He does not…

‘do not pour 
do not blow
when love is on fire’

~ Jan Twardowski ~

‘do not pour 
do not blow
when love is on fire’

~ Jan Twardowski ~

Korcula, Croatia – photo: Nedjeljko Cendo

April 25 of every year is a day when Australia and New Zealand commemorate all those who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations the countries have been involved in.

“Anzac Day goes beyond the anniversary of the landing on Gallipoli in 1915. It is the day on which we remember Australians who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations. The spirit of Anzac, with its human qualities of courage, mateship, and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity”.

Croatian sailors – particularly from Dalmatia – have sailed on ships owned by other nations forever – most returned home but some stayed in the far lands. Croatia has had a troubled history with powerful armies of kingdoms and empires who had persecuted the small Croatian nation and, often, people have had…