June 7, 2025

 Saturday. Left a little after ten. Nikor. Rainy with winds out of the southwest. West side of the Vecht, into the green on the Daalseweg and the trail, to the bicycle bridge and Oostwaard. Zuilensebrug and Maarssenbroek. Leaving Maarssenbroek a duck with seven or eight chicks crossing the bike path. Not a worry in the world. Around the Haarrijnseplas, Rijneveldsche Bospad, right at Haarzuilens, gradually more and more green. Skies very interesting with many shades of gray, some white, and a good view of where the showers were coming down. On the Hollandse Kade I rode into one spotted already from the Rodendijk. It didn't last long. Views from Rodendijk and Kade at once clear and limited, with near, hazy horizons. Church at Kanis very clear. Houtdijkerpad to Oude Rijn, Breudijk (back among the cars), Tiendweg, Dorpeldijk. Heldamweg to Zandpad back to the city. Rain-wind combination in which you dry out as you get wet; only occasionally more intense rain, and then it got a bit chilly. Commentary on the radio in the morning on the state of play on a possible cease-fire in Ukraine. We have gone from: I can end the war in a day, to berating the victim, to now: letting the parties fight it out for a while. In other words, nothing to offer, other than caprice and hot air with underneath some perverse fascination, if not outright sympathy, with the aggressor. It is all expressed by the man at the top, but he was elected, and he has many eager beavers doing his bidding. They do so out of opportunism, but also because they believe in a short-sighted, selfish approach to the world. We can't yet get by militarily without our old American friends--and one surely wishes it didn't have to be this way--and yet, we will have to.