March 18, 2026

 Wednesday. Left at ten. Blacksmith. Mild already, blue skies, moderate winds out of the southeast. De Bilt past Zeist, toward Woudenberg. Just before Woudenberg, the first three little lambs in a yard on the right. More and more bushes and trees beginning to look light-green. The woods still mostly barren. What looked like hyacinths in a few places. Light traffic on the hill. Right in Leersum and very quiet toward Ginkelduin. In the open on the Ginkelseweg, a crop well on its way in a field on the right. Hoogstraat, Ruiterberg, Maarnse Grindweg, then back toward, and up, Zeisterweg. A weekday morning, but people; as time passed, a growing number in shorts. In the news a report on the Belgian prime-minister's plea for some sort of normalization in European relations with Russia, so that Europe can resume natural gas purchases there. This man is not stupid, but apparently he's without principles. He sees no way for Ukraine to prevail, or, he has difficulty seeing how Russia can lose the war. That, surely, is not easy to see. However, to argue, essentially, that instead of continuing to pursue an outcome along these lines Europe should turn its back on Ukraine and become dependent again on a regime that since 2021 has included it in its declarations of war is both cynical and short-sighted. Perhaps the Belgian prime-minister is not as intelligent as he sometimes appears.