bannork

The birds at the hospital at sunset are amazing, the volume! I wonder if they are sparrows. There seems to be so many, I wonder why the need for so much chatter at sunset, perhaps comparing which wards' bins offered the best leftovers?

House to house fighting in Bakhmut

Because NATO is the collective force of the West which strongly opposes the barbaric invasion of Ukraine by Russia.

More ammo for Ukraine. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64837699

That's why there is NATO, an alliance to defend itself against Russian imperialism and barbarism, and the West has every right to supply weapons to Ukraine to defend itself.

One reason Russia is not collecting its dead or even wounded from the battlefield may be to avoid payment to the widows back home. He's MIA not KIA.

Don't you mean war crimes against those fighting Russia?

The Indian plum tree, mabrang in Thai ตันมะปราง. It flowered before the mangoes so I had really given up hope of any fruit but still some are emerging!

The lychee doing okay . Below that a mango tree doing okay. I forget which species this tree is, the fruit is the most delicious of the mango varieties imo

Russian state TV discussing Russian imperialist ambitions

Always loved this, an oxymoron perhaps, 'Fresh Garbage '. Can someone explain the meaning?

I'd like to amend that last paragraph slightly- 'needless to say, offspring in abundance sending money home, is essential.....'

I mentioned this to Owl a few weeks back. The problem was the trees flowered when it was still cold, resulting in zero insects to pollinate them. Fortunately we have a variety of mango trees and some have flowered later and are now producing fruit. But yes, our crop will be way down this year. On the plus side, our Indian plum tree has produced some fruit after I erroneously assumed the flowers had died. And the lychee flowers are being pollinated okay

Nils taking off

Very funny Bert

What a strange use of English- 'Makha Bucha Day returns'. It makes it sound as if it went away, fell into disuse, and then somehow came back. 'It's Makha Bucha Day next Monday' would be better imo

His only humanitarian gesture was to stop making movies in the West. God, were they bad!

The woes of a Russian soldier

Discontent in the Russian military and back home

Yes Owl, the cost of going to Bangkok twice wouldn't be much cheaper than using an agent. Unfortunately I've had to make several day trips to Bangkok in recent months, costs and inconvenience work out like this. It's 140 km to Udon and back from Bandung, too much for my daughter to drive with three young children so I get the bus to Udon. Pre COVID no problem, but now the last bus to Udon is at 2.00 pm. So 4 hours to kill in Udon before the night train. Relax at Central, recharge phone 4th floor, go to Villa at basement, stock up on marmite and mustards 960 baht a sleeper on the bottom bunk. Very comfortable and on time these days. Arrive in Bang Sue 6.am, what to do once passport business done? I went to a pleasant hotel down a soi almost opposite Trendy just for a few hours. Another 1000 baht. Or hang around Lumpini Park all day. Get the night train back, another 960 baht. Get to Udon at 6.00 am, no buses to Ban Dung till 9.00 am, unlike the old days, first bus at 5.30 am. So cost one trip: Train 2000 baht incl bus fare Hotel 1000 baht Taxis in Bangkok 200 baht 3200 baht. 2 trips 6400 baht approx. Not worth it for all the hassle. Cold winds from China again. Does anything good ever come out of that country apart from phones? Is anyone else experiencing those annoying pop up ads that appear once you've written a couple of lines?

Sorry Matt, you're a tad premature with those summer songs up here in northern Issan. Cold winds from China are back again.

Cannon fodder in Bakhmut