Asteroid Astrology: Page 6

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Simone Biles’ Olympic Saga

The professional sports world was stunned on July 27th by the announcement from star American gymnast Simone Biles that she would be withdrawing from the 2020 Olympics, citing mental health concerns.  After performing a qualifying round for the vaulting competition, Biles made a hard landing, affected by what gymnasts term “the twisties”, when one’s sense of balance and positioning is lost during vaults or dismounts.  Biles went on to withdraw from all team and individual competitions, later stating that the unexpected loss of her aunt two days before the Tokyo games opened, and memories of sexual abuse from her coach, had combined to dangerously distract her focus.

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Garden Glimpses: July – Another Day, Another Daylily

Daylilies have always been a part of my experience of this property, from my earliest remembrances of the lemon lilies my mother brought with her from my grandmother’s garden.  Bright shining yellow, these late May bloomers are still the first to open, though the encroaching maple shade has thinned them to a precious few.

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Sha’Carri Richardson Olympics Ban

Olympic hopeful Sha’Carri Richardson is covered in “grass” stains after a stumble and fall on her quest for a Gold Medal.  The track phenom, noted for her streaming masses of flame-orange hair as much as for her athletic prowess, failed a drug test for marijuana use and was given a one-month suspension on July 2, which effectively prevents her from fully competing in the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo, beginning July 23rd.  The suspension was retroactively imposed on June 28th, making Richardson free to compete after July 27th, so though she will miss the Women’s 100 meter, her qualifying race, she could conceivably participate in the Women’s 4 x 100 relay scheduled for August 5th.  However, Richardson has been cut from the roster of the US Olympic team, and will apparently not be allowed to compete at all.

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Garden Glimpses: June 2021

June can be a slow month in the garden, visually; the spring bulbs and ephemerals are long past, seeds have barely sprouted, bedded annuals are still teeny things just starting to grow, and summer perennials have yet to open.  But as the month progresses to the solstice, pops of color begin to emerge.

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RIP Cleo

It’s déjà vu all over again, as Yogi Berra would have it.  Less than four months ago I put down my rescue cat Charcoal, who had a cancerous tumor in his mouth, and now his companion Cleo follows him across the Rainbow Bridge, from the same complaint!  Cleo and Charkey were very close, and she hasn’t been the same since his passing.  Her eating habits had become erratic, and she was isolating more and more in the upper reaches of a storage unit in the laundry room that was their home.  After a few initial forays into the spring sunshine of the garden, she refused to go out, and the weekend before her death, she stopped eating completely.

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Garden Glimpses: May Day

As April wanes and fades into the lusty month of May, spring bulbs in the garden are waning, too, but there’s a last flourish of late-season daffodils to enjoy, and the muscari are at their peak.  Perennials have returned, and are lush with new green growth (or in the case of heucheras, that might be rose, bronze, burgundy, yellow or purple growth!), and some have even bloomed.

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