OMG, Banana Republic has a bunch of dresses I really want to get… I don’t have money right now… i am saving for a new computer… hopefully, when i have bought the new computer, they will still have my size…

From this morning…

! Blue tents temporarily housing bicycles and mopeds for rent.(https://www.notesonattentionpaid.com/uploads/2024/6ad75450-b0d1-4579-9205-eeb46507b7b3.jpg)

A water way viewed through reeds and shrubs.

Two concrete steps with white wooden railing in a grassy embankment. Old tree in background and two utility poles in the right foreground. Early morning sunlight.

Old tree trunks in early morning sunlight.

Old Victorian mansion with mansard roof. Walls and trim painted white.

Grassy knoll landscape rising to shrubs and trees in the distance.

Landscape with row of house structures on a pond in early morning sun.

Grassy lawn, pond, house. Utility poles in the distance.

Plastic wrapping on the ground.

Mermaid and fish mural on side of building.

June 3, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson

A barn burner post from HCR…

The fallout from the New York jury’s conviction of Donald Trump on 34 felony counts last Thursday, May 30, continues. Trump’s team continues to insist that the guilty verdict will help him, but that’s nonsensical on its face: if guilty verdicts are so helpful, why has he moved heaven and earth to keep the many other cases against him from going to trial? And why are he and House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) calling for the Supreme Court to overturn the convictions?  HCR

Some photographs from this morning’s walk along the beach and the beach road… Beach and ocean, early morning, cloudy, overturned life guard’s chair on lower right of frame.

Pile of rope, partially buried in sand.

Beach grass shoots in side of sand dune. Wind swept patterns in the sand.

Boulder at the base of a bluff. Erosion valleys running down the bluff.

Dividing line between bluff with erosion control measures and bluff without.

Deep hole dug in the sand.

Translucent body shell and legs of a dead crab.

Wooden stairway up into dunes with ropes strung between posts to prevent entry.

White ribbon tangled in shrub branches.

Waterway in grassy marsh.

Path to beach across dunes. Sign with rules. Wooden bicycle rack and marker post labeling entry. Dunes are covered with grasses and shrubs.

Beach pavilion building at State Beach, Block Island, RI, viewed from across the road.

Shove stuck in the sand next to top of concrete cylinder.

Second of two perfect beach days… not a given this time of year.

Ocean and beach with partial yellow and blue umbrellas at the top of the frame.

I understand now… backing Trump is the safe play… you avoid retribution if he wins and won’t loose anything if he doesn’t… it’s spineless, but it isn’t stupid.

Gender roles among the Indigenous peoples of North America - Wikipedia

I like this way of seeing gender… as spirit power… it is certainly how it feels to me.

They would say “He is a man (in body), he has changed to a woman (in dress and manner of life). But he is not a woman (in body). It is his spirit-power it is said that has told him, You become woman. You are always to wear your (woman’s) dress just like women. That is the way you must always do."[25]

The lack of a rational understanding of the limits to reason may prove fatal. The coherence of a civilisation depends on accepting the reality and value of principles which we do not, and perhaps never can, fully understand. In all societies hitherto this has been achieved by the influence of knowledge embodied in traditions, sometimes religious, that asked for acceptance by an appeal to imagination, not to reason alone.

(Iain McGilchrist, The Matter With Things)

The more overtly unshakeable someone’s beliefs are, the more diminished they seem to become, because they have stopped questioning, and the not-questioning can sometimes be accompanied by an attitude of moral superiority. The belligerent dogmatism of the current cultural moment is a case in point. A bit of humility wouldn’t go astray.

(Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan, Faith, Hope and Carnage)

More from this morning… concentrating on the sculpted bluffs at Vale Beach Block Island. Clay bluffs sculpted by erosion with grasses at the top. Partially illuminated by morning sunlight.

Sandy embankment with erosion streaks

Closeup of eroded clay bluffs.

Closeup of eroded clay bluffs with rocks exposed by erosion.

Closeup of eroded clay bluffs with early morning sun creating shadows highlighting textures and fissures.

Abstract structure and texture of side of clay bluffs eroded by water and wind.

Closeup of fissure and eroded shapes of clay bluffs.

Closeup of fissure and eroded shapes of clay bluffs.

Closeup of fissure and eroded shapes of clay bluffs.

Sculptural clay bluff up cropping lit by early morning sun.

Closeup of sculptural shapes created by erosion in clay bluffs.

Erosion fissures at base of clay bluffs with change in color from gray clay to red-brown sand.

Closeup of clay bluff sculpted by erosion.

From rhis morning… Purple flowering plants on a grassy slope.

Beach grass on a slope illuminated by early morning sun.

Party balloon with stars amidst rocks on a shore.

Yellow hand truck with Coors beer can sitting on it. Early morning sun.

Ropes supporting traps suspended in water below.

Moped with Captain Nick’s sticker on it.

Del’s lemonade mini car and sales cart on a brick terrace.

From this morning… Verdant landscape with rock wall, grass, shrubs, and large boulder in the distance.

Green and yellow net mostly buried in sand.

Timbers lying on the ground in shape of cross at the top of a grassy knoll.

Log and timbers partially buried in sand with beach grass in background.

Closeup of flowering dune plants.

Flowering dune plant surrounded by dune grass.

Pieces of timber laying on dune, surrounded by beach grass.

Dune plant with purple blossoms.

Closeup of beach rose.

Landscape with dunes, vegetation and water.

Boulder at the top of a small grassy embankment. Shrubs in the background.

From this morning…

“Lookout” platform projecting over sand dunes in early morning sun.

Old rusted steel tank and platform on the beach.

Fluid sand patterns created by water flowing over the sand.

A feather stuck in the sand with 2/3 of a circle pattern drawn in the sand around it by the feather pushed by the wind.

Old work glove embedded in the ground.

Swirls of current visible on the surface of the water as the tide comes in.

Three boats in protective plastic in a verdant landscape.

Electric car charging station with utility pole and communications tower in background.

Wooden dock projecting into a small pond from an opening in the reads around the pond.

Reflection of a piling and boat in water.

“One gasps in admiration at the ingenuity of it all—the housewife can participate in science itself just by buying something new—or something old that has been given a brand new personality.”

(Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique)

“The right hemisphere view of proof derives its value from the context, and so can never be absolute, regnant for all regions of space and time, and never single or immune from evolution.”

(Iain McGilchrist, The Matter With Things)

“Freedoms that save the saviors also save the degenerates and allow them to tear the whole society apart. But restrictions that stop the degenerates also stop the creative Dynamic forces of evolution.”

(Robert M. Pirsig, Lila)

“Reason cannot be the creative principle, unlike intuition: it is the quality control department only.”

(Iain McGilchrist, The Matter With Things)

From this morning…

Water, docks and boats in the fog.

Dock, ramp and pier structures in the foreground, water, point of land and house in the background.

Red and silver mopeds parked on an asphalt wharf area.

Various sizes of chain piled on top of a wooden dock surface.

Recreation yacht tied up to a pier in Older Harbor on Block Island in fog.

Dock and pier structures from right to left with fog in the distance.

View of Old Harbor on Block Island, with docs, piers and boats in the foreground and a point of land with houses in the distance.

Dilapidated wooden structure in a verdant landscape with houses in the distance.

Two wooden outbuildings on the left in a verdant landscape, corner of a porch on the right, framing a communications tower in the distance.

Dunes with newly planted dune vegetation.

May 23, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson

Today, by a vote of 6–3, the Supreme Court overturned the lower court’s decision and signed off on the new South Carolina congressional map that dilutes Black votes. It approved the map because, it said, the gerrymander was politically, rather than racially, motivated. And, it said, “as far as the Federal Constitution is concerned, a legislature may pursue partisan ends when it engages in redistricting.”

… why should any group have the right to disenfranchise any other group from its fair share of representation?

From this morning’s walk in Rodman’s Hollow on Block Island…

Boulder standing in the midst of shrubs and small trees.

Twin tree trunks in early morning sun in shrub filled field.

Tree and shrub in a grassy landscape.

Trail running from bottom to top then turning right and disappearing behind shrubs

Meadow landscape with sea and bluffs in the distance.

Twin tree trunks on a grassy knoll.

Trail across grassy landscape with small sign saying “walkers only.”

Closeup of grasses.

Old tree in morning sun in a meadow landscape.

Meadow landscape with trees in the distance and a trail running from the lower left corner and disappearing into the middle of the trees.

My new cooking apron with a map of Block Island!

Man dressed in pink shirt, multicolored headband, and cooking apron with a map of Block Island.

Shrinkflation?…

Boulder Canyon Avocado Oil Jalapeño Kettle Style Potato Chips bag from the front.

Boulder Canyon Avocado Oil Jalapeño Kettle Style Potato Chips bag opened from the top.

From this morning’s walk…

Landscape with driveway, shrubs and trees, and a house visible beyond.

Water visible through shrubs.

Signage for entrance to Dicken’s Farm Nature Preserve. Trees and shrubs surround.

Meadow landscape with ocean visible beyond and trail on right edge.

Shadow of a person cast on meadow grasses. Ocean visible in the distance.

Rolling hills meadow landscape, ocean visible on the right side.

Tree trunk illuminated by morning sun. Shrubs surround it.

Dirt road receding into distance right of center, dilapidated split rail fence on left side of road. Trees and shrubs line the right side. Trees in the distance.

Sun on the side of a building, yellow folded table umbrella and white picket fence in foreground. Sign spelling Persephone’s on the side of the building.

Display case full of morning pastries.