It really will fly - believe it or not

Pretty little plane with

 Two dogs and two cats is ready

To fly to Dreamland

Haiku recommendation

Readers might like to visit Yamaguchi Seishi's haiku published today on my haiku universe link (see links column or comments).

I wish I'd written it.

More than a work of art.

The photo is mine and has nothing to do with the haiku except to say we don't know what lies ahead.

Not my Cat. It just thinks it is.

Seems to enjoy my company when I'm sitting outside and often it watches me or goes to sleep.

Very occasionally it tries to sneak past me to get into the house. I don't allow cats in the house. It knows that. But still it likes to have a try.

Perhaps it's a game we play.

A red cat called Tommy used to come by. But sadly one day it was killed by a car as it was crossing the road. The car didn't stop.

A local doctor went to the aid of Tommy but it died in his arms.

He buried Tommy in his garden. I was allowed to see Tommy in his box in the doctor's kitchen before he was buried.

I don't know the name of this cat.  I don't suppose it matters since it has never asked me for my name.

It seems to be listening to small birds in the hedge.

It was was watching me working until I approached to take the photo.  Of course being a cat it then looked away. Haughtily, almost.

But me being me I nevertheless took the photo.

EU News Numbers Game

Opening words:  Sad news. The USA overtakes Italy!  This is terrible. The worst for a country since the outbreak of the pandemic! (Euronews).

Next up wonderful words about how it's going to be in the EU after the pandemic from the German president no less.

Yes, they're already setting the agenda.

Euronews, the EU news channel which claims to have the most viewers in Europe, never compares like with like.

The EU plague news is invariably slanted.

Blatant anti-America.

Propaganda.

Devious.

The plain and true fact is that the European Union has by far the highest death totals in the world. Far higher than the USA.

In just three EU countries (Italy, Spain, France) with populations totalling 174,000,000 the number of deaths is rapidly approaching 60,000.

In fact if we include little Belgium in our list of EU pandemic deaths the total of just FOUR  EU states is over 3 times higher than that of the whole of the USA.

And let's not forget the USA population is 331,000,000.

It's time for the EU's major news outlet to report the news as it really is and not as they wish it to be.

Cheesy encounter

My
personal Frankenstein
bat -mouse

encounter
as I now recall
involved a laboratory mouse

the friendly stall holder said
must have escaped
from the medical university

The mouse it was white
was sniffing
the various cheeses on offer

on the cut and taste
counter
that sultry pre-Christmas

evening

Easter Egg

Hanging from the old apricot tree the Easter egg 

Bad Moon Rising

                                  This is not a corona virus. It's a photo of tonight's moonrise.

Comparing like with like

In the USA the number of coronavirus deaths stands at 10,000.

10,000 is a fifth ( 20%) of the number of coronavirus deaths in Europe - already over  50,000.

I don't know what Europe is any more. I don't think anybody does. Is it the Europe on my school atlas?

If Turkey is in Europe then Europe's number could increase dramatically in the next couple of weeks.

I join with everyone in wishing British PM Boris Johnson well in his personal battle with the virus.

And I have to add that I was impressed with US President Donald Trump's heartfelt tribute to Boris and his never give up qualities.

The words of one Eurpoean leader, I shall not name him, left me cold. They were Orwellian in their exactness. Perhaps they were computer generated for the occasion.

I think that's all for today, unless things change dramatically.

Hope everybody is keeping safe and well in our little corner of Blogland.

Anticipating summer holidays.

One thing I've decided to do to pass my time and keep cabin fever at bay is to plan a little holiday.

I shall start near the Great Orme, a place which holds fond memories for me. It was there  I 'officially' finished my cycle ride from the Severn Estuary to the North Wales Coast some 20 years ago.

The mode of transport for the forthcoming adventure has yet to be decided. I fancy taking the steam train through the Snowdonia National Park using the mountain railway from Caernarvon to Porthmadog

Are any of you thinking of taking a post-Covid-19 holiday break later in the year? I'm interested to see if people will be reluctant to travel far and wide once this thing is ended.

Have just discovered I have something called 'comic effect' amongst my photo tools. I think it's cool.

TV channel disappears.

Yeti Footprint Found on Moon*.

Lest we forget, it was Galileo who discovered craters and mountains on that body and it was he whose last words were that the earth moves, that it goes around the sun. Fake news of course! He must be joking. Throw him in the clink.

The EU's recent 'edict' (source: EU Observer) abolishing April Fool's Day 'fake news' items and mentioning, in the same breath, the word 'Russia' appears to have had an unfortunate  consequence.

Or maybe it's a strange coincidence.

   Dear Frau Von der Leyen, in times like the present we need something to laugh at. Your predecessor the joker clearly understood that.

You apparently not? That's a question.

Following your April Fool 'edict' I appear to  have a problem. The channel RT - Russia Today - now shows me a blank screen.

Fortunately I still have Al Jazeera.

But how long before it too is gone?

An Al Jazeera news item this morning said China's early under reporting is responsible for the pandemic. Can that be allowed EU?

Who decides these things Mrs VdL?

Don't panic: Yeti Footprint Found on Moon 

is a Zen My Ass April 1st Fake News Joke!

Alternative sources of news are essential to the understanding the world of today. I object to being told which news channels I may watch and not watch. I like to flick through Al Jazeera, CNN, Bloomberg TV, Euronews, BBC World and even the Chinese channel I'm still allowed to watch (for the time being). The TV has hundreds of channels. Most in German and most of them uninteresting. 

The truth shall set you free. Although maybe not immediately. It was 350 years after his death that Galileo was granted a pardon by those who imprisoned him in his house for 32 years.