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Post by bjd on Apr 17, 2023 7:47:15 GMT
Charlottetown Capital of Prince Edward Island, Canada
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Post by bjd on Apr 17, 2023 7:38:38 GMT
So off Brigham Young:
Hamilton Burger LA district attorney in old Perry Mason TV shows
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Post by bjd on Apr 16, 2023 13:49:47 GMT
Speaking of Belgians, we had some nice wine at lunchtime. A white chardonnay/viognier blend made by a Belgian winemaker in the south of France.
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Post by bjd on Apr 14, 2023 19:31:52 GMT
Thanks, Bixa. I bookmarked it and will take a longer look. There is also Momox in Germany which sells second-hand books.
The great advantage of the Book Depository is that it sent books all over the world for free. Then Amazon bought them, retained the free mailing but raised prices (competition for Amazon, obviously!). Now Amazon has decided to close it down completely as of the end of April.
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Post by bjd on Apr 14, 2023 18:18:33 GMT
This evening the Constitutional Council ruled that raising the retirement age to 64 is perfectly legal, although they did refuse certain other clauses that had been tacked on to the proposed law.
So demonstrations are continuing, people are pissed off and swearing that they will keep on being angry and will continue their street protests. Meanwhile, Macron cannot back down in the two weeks in which he has to sign the law. Backing down would be political suicide, as would calling new legislative elections.
I don't quite understand why Marine Le Pen is so pleased although I keep reading that her poll numbers are climbing.She claims to be against the reform but will accept the Council's decision. Why would the far right increase its popularity if it's the left that is mostly leading the protests?
Furthermore, Spain has just raised it's retirement age to 67, which is also the age in Belgium and perhaps the Netherlands. No street protests there. A French friend told me it's the historical influence of the French revolution but I have a hard time believing that.
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Post by bjd on Apr 14, 2023 18:09:10 GMT
Bixa -- I looked it up and I'm sure it's interesting but over 900 pages is a bit daunting right now. Especially since my source of English-language books is about to dry up totally since Amazon has decided to close The Book Depository.
Meanwhile, I am just getting to the end of a re-read of Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone. I didn't remember anything about it and really enjoy it for a second time, if not the third.
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Post by bjd on Apr 14, 2023 18:03:57 GMT
Willem-Alexander King of the Netherlands
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Post by bjd on Apr 14, 2023 17:59:27 GMT
Cotswolds Scenic area of England
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Post by bjd on Apr 14, 2023 13:21:10 GMT
Sporadic showers and cooler temperatures As well as lots of wind.
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Post by bjd on Apr 14, 2023 13:19:57 GMT
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Post by bjd on Apr 13, 2023 7:06:32 GMT
As mentioned by Kerouac, supermarkets are advertising low prices on a list of items. According to a consumer watchdog, these are mostly store-brand or low-cost things. In the past few months, I have noticed a big increase in the cost of fresh fruit and vegetables at the market, so probably due to higher costs for the producers as well as transport, dairy products like milk, cheese and butter, and gasoline. Bread has gone up too even though French bread is made with French flour. But certainly nowhere near 40%.
Whatagain, I thought the Badoit bottles in question were plastic, in which case the recycling story might not be nonsense. Our supermarket has a bottle container for plastic bottles (all those bottles of water people buy!) but it only accepts clear ones, not coloured ones.
I have never known what the government's "inflation basket" actually contains, but even though official inflation remains around 6 or 7% in France, they admit that food inflation is around 15%.
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Post by bjd on Apr 12, 2023 13:26:45 GMT
Definitely not one of my favourite places in Paris, which explains why I haven't been there in years. Boooring! Just big stores, although it looks as though most of them have closed. It looks pretty depressing and that's not just due to the weather.
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Post by bjd on Apr 12, 2023 8:21:44 GMT
Just a few drops beginning to fall here now (10:30 am). It is supposed to rain quite a lot tomorrow.
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Post by bjd on Apr 11, 2023 9:19:43 GMT
I went for a quick trip to the nursery this morning. I pulled out the osteospermums which were indeed dead and replaced them with 3 red salvias. They should be perennial and don't mind heat and dryness.
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Post by bjd on Apr 11, 2023 5:48:00 GMT
Weird weather everywhere. We talked with our son and his family yesterday. They live 40 km from Ottawa, on the Quebec side of the border (the Ottawa River). Last week there was a huge ice storm, they had no power for 2 days, lots of trees down in Ottawa, Montreal and in a large area. Yesterday afternoon, they were outside in the garden in t-shirts, it was 15° in the shade. The ice on the river just in front of the house had just broken up a few days ago and they were expecting flooding at the end of the month.
15° outside here this morning and cloudy. We might get some rain this week.
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Post by bjd on Apr 11, 2023 5:41:34 GMT
witch-hazel family, Hamamelidaceae It's lovely. Spring bloom only, or intermittent? Mostly spring blooming when they are covered with flowers, but they occasionally get a few blooms in the fall. I have several in the garden because I like their dark foliage.
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Post by bjd on Apr 11, 2023 5:39:38 GMT
I'm with Fumo on this one. Atheism seems like too much of a strong belief. Wasn't there a militant atheist in the States some years ago -- a woman called Madeleine something? I'm in the "don't care and don't believe all that stuff" category but do enjoy visiting religious buildings if they are interesting.
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Post by bjd on Apr 10, 2023 18:00:09 GMT
It's a loropetalum, part of the witchazel family.
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Post by bjd on Apr 10, 2023 12:21:26 GMT
We spent Easter Sunday afternoon at the beach. It was sunny and 24° so there were lots of people but nobody in the water except for a couple of little English kids. This morning our local market was open with lots of sellers.
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Post by bjd on Apr 10, 2023 12:16:50 GMT
Wild asparagus is delicious in an omelette. I had some wild leeks the other day too.
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Post by bjd on Apr 10, 2023 12:13:49 GMT
It's not the getting up there that poses problems -- it's on the way down I always feel I'm going to slip and break my neck. Impressive site.
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Post by bjd on Apr 9, 2023 5:14:38 GMT
The current business with the Trump-appointed judge in Texas perhaps being able to stop an abortion-producing drug in the entire US puzzles me. This is a medical, and perhaps political, decision, not a legal one. How can one unelected man be allowed to hold such outsize influence over so many people?
I just don't understand how the US works.
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Post by bjd on Apr 9, 2023 5:09:47 GMT
Enjoy yourself, Cheery.
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Post by bjd on Apr 9, 2023 5:05:41 GMT
Peonies are all up but only one, the earliest to flower, has a big bud on it. I'm hoping some of the others will flower this year since many of them are recent plantings or transplants. It's not a good area for peonies as far as soil goes, but I keep hoping.
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Post by bjd on Apr 8, 2023 20:03:14 GMT
We're not that far ahead, Bixa. Those double flowers are tulips.
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Post by bjd on Apr 8, 2023 18:10:11 GMT
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Post by bjd on Apr 8, 2023 17:59:27 GMT
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Post by bjd on Apr 7, 2023 18:09:04 GMT
I have seen some of those news reports about the ice storm in Quebec and eastern Ontario. After all these years, you would really think they would learn to bury power lines so that when trees come crashing down, thousands of people don't lose power.
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Post by bjd on Apr 7, 2023 18:02:54 GMT
I suppose what I have in the garden are relatively hardy. Mind you, it doesn't get that cold here but during our just below freezing temperatures (-3 or -4), the arum lillies turn to mush but cutting off the rotten bits makes them grow back with no problem. They are rather invasive here -- I have several in my garden and did not plant any of them. Some had been hibernating under a huge hedge for years and grew big the year after we had the hedge removed.
They also like water (why they turn easily to mush, I guess) and you can see them growing in ditches full of water here. Only the big white ones. They will also grow in complete shade.
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Post by bjd on Apr 7, 2023 8:17:10 GMT
I was wondering if it wasn't one of the "stinking lily" arums. ps ~ I meant the picture further up -- the purple flower. I think the one with the long yellow spadix is more like a regular calla lily. Calla and arum seem to be used interchangeably so I just looked it up: "Hardy types (arum lilies) have large, elegant white flowers that stand on tall stems above lush, glossy leaves. Tender types (calla lilies) are smaller, but their flowers come in a wide choice of vibrant tropical colours." Royal Horticultural Society
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