Sunday, March 31
Mar. 31st, 2024 09:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Nice warm weather today.
I had a phone conversation with my Mom, and she seemed cheerful. We chatted mostly about the return of birds and how much snow there was left, and simple things like that.
I also spoke with Trainwreck and had one of our few NICE conversations where I didn't feel upset afterwards. She said that she and another woman at the lodge had a fairly informal get together with the other residents in the common area where it was kind of a nice potluck, and apparently everyone enjoyed themselves and chatted.
I was happy to hear that, as it actually seems like a very "normal" and social thing to do that didn't sound like it revolved around alcohol or undermining authority.
I went to see River, and his eye seemed okay. A tiny bit puffy, but it doesn't seem to be irritating him or anything. I did put a bit more cream on it, but it's doing okay.
It was just us today, and ran through our usual ground work and such, and then some riding for the patterns we're working on.
At one point all of the horses outside were tearing around like maniacs and that took his attention away from me, but he was okay after a few minutes.
He's really shedding lots now, so I get a lot on myself every time I'm near him.
It was nice just to be with him, and good weather and so on.
I came home and had supper, and then my Sweetie called.
He had brunch with his nephew and his partner at their house, and that was nice. Another day of being social and eating lots, and he did go bouldering with his brother in law too.
Begium is where my Mom's side of the family is from. It is part of what is known as the low country, and does have some coastline to the North Sea. It is quite densely populated, with about 11.5 million people.
"Belgium is a sovereign state and a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system. Its institutional organization is complex and is structured on both regional and linguistic grounds. It is divided into three highly autonomous regions:[15] the Flemish Region (Flanders) in the north, the Walloon Region (Wallonia) in the south, and the Brussels-Capital Region.[16"
Way back in the day, Belgium would have been part of Gaul, and close ties with Germanic tribes. It did become part of the Roman Empire.
In Medieval times, it fell under the dominion of the Merovingian kings (Frankish), then the Carolingian Dynasty, and in 843 the general region was divided into three kingdoms, whose borders that defined it for centuries.
Then we have Burgundian and Habsburg rule, then Spanish and Austrian Habsburg rule, then the French Revolution which united the low countries into the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
"In 1830, the Belgian Revolution led to the re-separation of the Southern Provinces from the Netherlands and to the establishment of a Catholic and bourgeois, officially French-speaking and neutral, independent Belgium under a provisional government and a national congress.[35][36] Since the installation of Leopold I as king on 21 July 1831, now celebrated as Belgium's National Day, Belgium has been a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a laicist constitution based on the Napoleonic code.[37] Although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 (with plural voting until 1919) and for women in 1949."
At the time of the First World War, Belgium was the most densely populated region in the world, with lots of resources, was an industrial powerhouse, had dense networks of rail roads and canals and the most important port in the world at that time in Antwerp. Belgium rejected Germany's ultimatum for Germany to have "right of passage"; that rejection led to full scale war and occupation. Belgium, of course was pretty much completely used up and destroyed by that occupation.
In WWII, Germany occupied Belgium again, aaannnddd, killed most of the Jewish people along with many Belgians. The Allies did free the country, and not long afterwards in 1960 the Belgian Congo fought and won it's independence, as did the colony of Ruanda-Urundi soon after.
Belgium has a lot of low-lying land towards the coast, as well as reclaimed land (polders) like the Netherlands. Towards the Ardennes region, it is rocky and more forested, and then has a plateau region.
"Belgium's strongly globalized economy[112] and its transport infrastructure are integrated with the rest of Europe. Its location at the heart of a highly industrialized region helped make it the world's 15th largest trading nation in 2007.[113][114] The economy is characterized by a highly productive work force, high GNP and high exports per capita.[115] Belgium's main imports are raw materials, machinery and equipment, chemicals, raw diamonds, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, transportation equipment, and oil products. Its main exports are machinery and equipment, chemicals, finished diamonds, metals and metal products, and foodstuffs.[116]"
So, if you've been paying attention, Belgium's colonies had diamonds, so Belgium more or less enslaved those people to mine diamonds for Belgium and gave them nothing in return, and thus Belgium's finished product is diamonds (Antwerp, right?).
Side note: birthplace of Jean Claude Van Damme! Surrealist painter Rene Magritte!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium
The full story of Belgium's messed up and complicated political situation is more than I am willing to explain, but this video does a good job.
https://youtu.be/0TuMvWCbM-g?si=cYamoMG1kE79m7s-
Nice warm weather today.
I had a phone conversation with my Mom, and she seemed cheerful. We chatted mostly about the return of birds and how much snow there was left, and simple things like that.
I also spoke with Trainwreck and had one of our few NICE conversations where I didn't feel upset afterwards. She said that she and another woman at the lodge had a fairly informal get together with the other residents in the common area where it was kind of a nice potluck, and apparently everyone enjoyed themselves and chatted.
I was happy to hear that, as it actually seems like a very "normal" and social thing to do that didn't sound like it revolved around alcohol or undermining authority.
I went to see River, and his eye seemed okay. A tiny bit puffy, but it doesn't seem to be irritating him or anything. I did put a bit more cream on it, but it's doing okay.
It was just us today, and ran through our usual ground work and such, and then some riding for the patterns we're working on.
At one point all of the horses outside were tearing around like maniacs and that took his attention away from me, but he was okay after a few minutes.
He's really shedding lots now, so I get a lot on myself every time I'm near him.
It was nice just to be with him, and good weather and so on.
I came home and had supper, and then my Sweetie called.
He had brunch with his nephew and his partner at their house, and that was nice. Another day of being social and eating lots, and he did go bouldering with his brother in law too.
Begium is where my Mom's side of the family is from. It is part of what is known as the low country, and does have some coastline to the North Sea. It is quite densely populated, with about 11.5 million people.
"Belgium is a sovereign state and a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system. Its institutional organization is complex and is structured on both regional and linguistic grounds. It is divided into three highly autonomous regions:[15] the Flemish Region (Flanders) in the north, the Walloon Region (Wallonia) in the south, and the Brussels-Capital Region.[16"
Way back in the day, Belgium would have been part of Gaul, and close ties with Germanic tribes. It did become part of the Roman Empire.
In Medieval times, it fell under the dominion of the Merovingian kings (Frankish), then the Carolingian Dynasty, and in 843 the general region was divided into three kingdoms, whose borders that defined it for centuries.
Then we have Burgundian and Habsburg rule, then Spanish and Austrian Habsburg rule, then the French Revolution which united the low countries into the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
"In 1830, the Belgian Revolution led to the re-separation of the Southern Provinces from the Netherlands and to the establishment of a Catholic and bourgeois, officially French-speaking and neutral, independent Belgium under a provisional government and a national congress.[35][36] Since the installation of Leopold I as king on 21 July 1831, now celebrated as Belgium's National Day, Belgium has been a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a laicist constitution based on the Napoleonic code.[37] Although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 (with plural voting until 1919) and for women in 1949."
At the time of the First World War, Belgium was the most densely populated region in the world, with lots of resources, was an industrial powerhouse, had dense networks of rail roads and canals and the most important port in the world at that time in Antwerp. Belgium rejected Germany's ultimatum for Germany to have "right of passage"; that rejection led to full scale war and occupation. Belgium, of course was pretty much completely used up and destroyed by that occupation.
In WWII, Germany occupied Belgium again, aaannnddd, killed most of the Jewish people along with many Belgians. The Allies did free the country, and not long afterwards in 1960 the Belgian Congo fought and won it's independence, as did the colony of Ruanda-Urundi soon after.
Belgium has a lot of low-lying land towards the coast, as well as reclaimed land (polders) like the Netherlands. Towards the Ardennes region, it is rocky and more forested, and then has a plateau region.
"Belgium's strongly globalized economy[112] and its transport infrastructure are integrated with the rest of Europe. Its location at the heart of a highly industrialized region helped make it the world's 15th largest trading nation in 2007.[113][114] The economy is characterized by a highly productive work force, high GNP and high exports per capita.[115] Belgium's main imports are raw materials, machinery and equipment, chemicals, raw diamonds, pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, transportation equipment, and oil products. Its main exports are machinery and equipment, chemicals, finished diamonds, metals and metal products, and foodstuffs.[116]"
So, if you've been paying attention, Belgium's colonies had diamonds, so Belgium more or less enslaved those people to mine diamonds for Belgium and gave them nothing in return, and thus Belgium's finished product is diamonds (Antwerp, right?).
Side note: birthplace of Jean Claude Van Damme! Surrealist painter Rene Magritte!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium
The full story of Belgium's messed up and complicated political situation is more than I am willing to explain, but this video does a good job.
https://youtu.be/0TuMvWCbM-g?si=cYamoMG1kE79m7s-
