July 31, 2025

 Thursday. Left at about quarter to ten. Blacksmith. Partly sunny, mild, moderate breezes from the northwest. A quiet morning in the city and outside. Full summer, as in prospering hydrangeas at many farm houses, pears coming along, corn just about ready to eat, and magnificent wildflower fields and borders everywhere. Koningsweg, Vechten, Achterdijk, Werkhoven, 't Goy, and into Schalkwijk by way of the Spoordijk. Spectacular Loosestrife at the Verdronken Bos. Strijpweg to the levee. Beatrixsluis, Jutphase Brug, and Merwedekanaal back into the city, to Cycle Works, then Mos. In the paper some reporting on the ongoing preposterization of what once was a moderate center-right party (the one led for years by the current Secretary-General of NATO), but now appears to be dominated by opportunists and (in the provinces) radicals. In parliament this week they requested that, defense spending being raised, the Netherlands get another aircraft carrier. Between 1948 and 1968 the Dutch navy did have such a boat, but even then its military utility seems to have been minor, certainly compared to the costs. To advocate the purchase of a new one today (the best argument apparently is that the country still owns some territory in the Caribbean) is so transparently opportunistic as to be more than a little sad for a party that used be made up of serious people.