Mr Blue Jay* was at it this morning, stealing twigs from my Japanese maple for his nest.
*Steller’s jay (Cyanocitta stelleri)
Friday/ happy Equinox 😊
Happy Friday.
Happy vernal equinox and happy autumn equinox (for those in the southern hemisphere), as well.
The rain brought on by the atmospheric river from the Pacific Ocean has finally stopped here in Seattle.
Several rivers and low-lying areas are under flood conditions today, which will continue into the weekend.
It marks the official astronomical start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.
Today, the Sun passes directly over Earth’s equator, creating nearly equal lengths of day and night everywhere.
[Graphic from USA Today online]
Thursday/ Day 20 💥
From the New York Times, with reporting by Tony Romm, Isabel Kershner, David E. Sanger, Javier C. Hernández and Johnatan Reiss:
Oil prices surged to $119 a barrel on Thursday, an increase of nearly 10 percent, before settling at $108.65.
Ground troops: During a meeting with the Japanese prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, in the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr. Trump was asked about using ground troops in Iran. He said: “I’m not putting troops anywhere. If I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
Missile attacks: Strikes on Wednesday and Thursday hit the Ras Laffan energy hub in Qatar, reducing the country’s natural gas export capacity by 17 percent and causing an estimated loss of $20 billion in annual revenue, according to Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, the country’s energy minister and head of QatarEnergy, the state-owned energy company. He said damage from missiles would take three to five years to repair and would affect supply to markets in Europe and Asia.
Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said that the country reserved the right “to take military actions if deemed necessary” to protect itself from Iranian attacks.
Death tolls: Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations said last week that at least 1,348 civilians had been killed since the start of the war. On Wednesday, a Washington-based human rights group, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, reported that at least 1,369 civilians had been killed. The number of Lebanese killed rose to more than 1,000, Lebanon’s health ministry said on Thursday. At least 14 people have been killed in Iranian attacks on Israel, officials have said. The American death toll stood at 13.
Wednesday/ a postcard from Palestine 🌴
I spend a lot of time scrolling through the listings of stamps and postcards online.
Here is a postcard with a photo from Tel Aviv, Israel (circa 1942) that I find very interesting.
In 1942, Tel Aviv was part of Mandatory Palestine, a territory administered by the British under a League of Nations mandate from 1920 to 1948. During this period, Tel Aviv was a rapidly growing Jewish city adjacent to Jaffa. The entire region was known as Palestine, not as the state of Israel, until 1948.
There are still Palestinians living in Tel Aviv, specifically in the municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo, with most residing in Jaffa (Yaffo). Palestinians make up 4 to 5% of the city’s population. These are largely Palestinian citizens of Israel (or Arab-Israelis) who remained after 1948, rather than residents from the occupied West Bank or Gaza.
Palestinian citizens of Israel possess legal rights such as voting and holding office, but do not have the same, equal rights as Jewish citizens in practice or law. While holding citizenship, they face systemic inequalities, discrimination in housing, land access, and education, and are governed by laws privileging Jewish citizens, such as the controversial 2018 Nation-State Law. Palestinian citizens of Israel (Arab citizens of Israel) hold Israeli passports, which allow them to travel internationally and access the same rights as other Israeli citizens. Their rights are distinct from Palestinians in East Jerusalem, who are generally permanent residents without Israeli citizenship or passports.
This stamp’s denomination is 10 mil, 10/1000ths of a Palestine pound (£P) which was pegged 1:1 to the British pound at the time. So one penny’s worth of postage was good for sending the postcard down to South Africa.
The number 39 is a unique identifier for the individual censor from the Royal Air Force or the specific censorship unit that examined and approved the message.
The sender was a Harold McMaster, on active duty in the British Army.
(The British Army controlled Palestine in 1942 as part of the British Mandate, which lasted from 1920 to 1948.)
It certainly seems that Mrs. McMaster that resided in Vereeniging, South Africa, was his mom, or at least a close family member.
At the time there were lots of South Africans of British descent, and of Jewish descent, residing in South Africa (and there still are, to this day).
Tuesday/ a joint issue of stamps 📮
I bought this set of stamps in Singapore.
It is a 2024 joint issue of stamps from ten ASEAN* countries. (Different stamps for each country but issued on the same day).
*Not, not Asian— ASEAN: the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
It is a regional intergovernmental organization established on August 8, 1967, to promote economic growth, social progress, cultural development, and regional peace. It comprises 11 member countries—Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Timor-Leste.
The theme for the joint issue is not super-exciting: general post office buildings.
Some of the stamps have cool security features, though.
And I was reminded where in the world the Brunei is.
From Google: Brunei is a tiny nation on the island of Borneo, in 2 distinct sections surrounded by Malaysia and the South China Sea. It’s known for its beaches and biodiverse rainforest, much of it protected within reserves. The capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, is home to the opulent Jame’Asr Hassanil Bolkiah mosque and its 29 golden domes. The capital’s massive Istana Nurul Iman palace is the residence of Brunei’s ruling sultan.
The SPM lettering is an abbreviation for Security Printer of Malaysia. The SPM watermark has been applied a long time on stamps from Malaysia, and is found on stamps as early as 1986.
Monday/ a break in the rain ☔
It has been raining a little every day for ten days, and it looks like it will continue for several more.
It was 5:39 p.m. and 54°F (12°C) this afternoon when I walked over to the Safeway grocery store.
The blue sky was filled with both high and low clouds. I boosted the blues in the photo below using the iPhone’s “Vivid Cool” filter, and I really like the result. You can see the outline of the Olympic Mountains, and if you look closely, you can see an airplane in the photo as well.
Sunday/ the 98th Oscars 🎞️
I didn’t watch the Oscars tonight.
I didn’t know anything about any of the movies that had been nominated.
(It has been years since I have been in a movie theater. I believe it was in 2023 for Barbie— which turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment, after all the ballyhoo that preceded its release.)
These days there is an AI bot to query about what you had missed, though, or to provide you with a quick update!
See?
Saturday/ it’s Pi Day 🥧
Happy Pi Day.
Their full pie line-up include: lavish chocolate cream pie, banana cream pie, classic lemon chess pie, Hudson Valley heirloom apple pie, Hudson Valley apple pecan crumb, New York sour cherry pie, sour cherry pecan crumb, wild Maine blueberry pie, coconut custard pie, salty chocolate chess pie, black bottom almond chess pie, brown butter honey pecan pie, key lime meringue and classic New York cheesecake. 🤗
Friday/ a rare snow day ❄️
White snow flakes started coming down here in the city in the wee hours of the morning, transitioning to a very light snow for most of the daylight hours.
Snow in Seattle during March is uncommon— recorded only a handful of times in the last century.
Temperatures are mild today (38°F/ 3°C), so some of the snow on the ground has melted away already. (About 3 in. of snow on the ground).
I took these pictures shortly after 9 am this morning.
Thursday/ it’s hot in Cape Town 🔥
A heat wave in the Cape Town area in the Western Cape in South Africa is driving late-late summer temperatures to record highs.
At Kirstenbosch, the botanical garden in heart of the city, the high reached 42.1 °C (108 °F) on Wednesday, the highest since records began 66 years ago.
Cape Point on the Cape Peninsula also set a record with a temperature of 40°C (104 °F), a first for that location, and verified by the South African Weather Service.
At Alexander Bay in the extreme and arid northwest of the Western Cape province and on the border with Namibia, a reading of 44.8°C (112 °F) was logged.
Wednesday/ the Strait of Hormuz 🚢
As Stephen Colbert said tonight on The Colbert Show: Iran does have a nuclear option.
It is to close the Strait of Hormuz.
Qatar produces roughly a third of the world’s helium. More than a quarter of the world’s helium supply could be cut off if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. (Helium is not only for party balloons; it is used in semiconductor manufacturing).
Half of the world’s sulfur supply is now trapped on the Persian Gulf side of the Strait of Hormuz. Sulfur is used to produce sulfuric acid, which is essential for manufacturing fertilizers, chemicals, and detergents.
[Map from Google Maps]
Tuesday/ added a page 📄
German stamp album publisher Leuchtturm generally did a great job with their preprinted stamp album for South Africa.
They followed a minimalist, clean layout without the year of issue only, and no descriptions for what the stamps commemorate.
On some pages like the first two below, for example, several versions of the same stamp exist, but there is place for only one. (The stamps were issued on on different types of paper, or with different watermarks, for example.)
So I added a page into my album with the sets that had stamps with multiple versions.
P.S. That monument on the green 4c stamp is in my hometown of Vereeniging. Its inscription says ‘Wounded but invincible’. Sculptor Coert Steynberg is shown working on it (it was unveiled in 1961).
The monument commemorates the Treaty of Vereeniging, a peace treaty, signed on 31 May 1902, that ended the Second Boer War between the South African Republic and the Orange Free State on the one side, and the United Kingdom on the other.
Monday/ a remarkable intraday recovery 💵
I was very surprised to see that the US stock market indexes ended up well into the green today.
Google’s AI bot says:
“The U.S. stock market staged a remarkable intraday recovery on Monday, March 9, 2026, with major indexes finishing in the green after earlier losses of nearly 2%. This reversal was primarily driven by late-session optimism that the conflict with Iran might be nearing a conclusion.”
On the other hand, Michael Levenson writes in today’s New York Times:
Less than two weeks after U.S. and Israeli forces attacked Iran, Americans are already feeling the effects an ocean away. Gas prices are up. Food prices are likely to increase. And volatility in the stock market could threaten retirement savings.
President Trump initially said the war would last “four to five weeks,” but he has recently sent mixed signals, at times suggesting it could become a prolonged fight. If it does, the fallout for Americans could accumulate, some experts warned. Consumers could cut back on spending and businesses could stop hiring or resort to layoffs, threatening the broader economy.
The caption for the photo at the bottom reads ‘Crowds gathered at Enghelab Square to celebrate the announcement of Mojtaba Khamenei, the new supreme leader of Iran.’
Sunday/ oil prices surge 🛢
There is a war in the Midde East, and oil prices are going up— of course.
Rebecca F. Elliott and Joe Rennison write for the New York Times:
Oil prices surged on Sunday evening, briefly topping $110 a barrel soon after markets opened, in a sign of growing concern that the war in the Middle East will continue to take a toll on energy supplies.
It was the first time in almost four years that the global oil benchmark, known as Brent, cost more than $100 a barrel. Oil is now around 50 percent more expensive than it was before the United States and Israel began attacking Iran on Feb. 28.
Saturday 🌇
There were clouds and a little rain today here in the Emerald City.
It was 54°F (12°C) outside when I went for a walk just before sunset.
Sunset was at 6.04 pm tonight, and that will change to 7.04 pm tomorrow night after Daylight Saving Time has kicked in at 2 am Sunday morning.
(For the record: I think that’s crazy and that we should stop messing with the time.)
Friday/ at the airport ✈️
My time in Mazatlán was over on Friday morning 😢.
My stuffed axolotl from the Gran Acuario Mazatlán gift shop went into the suitcase with my clothes, and now I am at Mazatlán airport.
I will try to get a few airplane pictures before we board.
Update at Sat 12.30 am:
I made it home.
That connection to Seattle for international arrivals into LAX is quite something.
We arrived at the gate at LAX at 5.55 pm.
The flight to Seattle was going to leave at 7.40 pm.
First, there is a very long walk through a labyrinth of walkways and hallways to get to the US Customs and Border Control point. I said to a friendly official that they need to put more signs up for us, to which she replied – oh, but you should ‘just look for open doors’ if you don’t know where to go next.
(The problem was that I had no crowd to follow. A group of people in front of me on the airplane took so long to disembark, that the rest had disappeared completely out of sight by the time I stepped off.
Where did everyone go? 😱)
Anyway, there was no Global Entry kiosk open at Customs and Border Control (they are part of the partial government shutdown that still has not been resolved). So instead, there was a facial recognition photo check for everyone, regardless if you had Global Entry credentials or not. The camera did not recognize everyone and those were then directed to an official for a manual passport check.
Now I still had to pick up my bag from the international arrivals carousel for rechecking it for the flight to Seattle. That took a very long time as well, after which you get ejected into the public area at Terminal 6.
So now you go up the escalator, to go through the standard domestic flight security check again— which ate up the remaining time I had for the connection.
My flight to Seattle was already into boarding Group E by the time I had gone to the restroom and taken a few bites out of a sandwich and banana that I had bought hastily.
The axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) is a species of paedomorphic mole salamander. They mature into the terrestrial adult form without undergoing metamorphosis; the adults remain fully aquatic with obvious external gills. This trait, although somewhat unusual among the majority of amphibians, is not unique.
Axolotls originally inhabited a system of interconnected wetlands and lakes in the Mexican highlands. They were known to inhabit the smaller lakes of Xochimilco and Chalco, and are also presumed to have inhabited the larger lakes of Texcoco and Zumpango. These waterways were mostly drained by Spanish settlers after the conquest of the Aztec Empire, leading to the destruction of much of the axolotl’s natural habitat, which is now largely occupied by Mexico City. Despite this, they remained abundant enough to form part of the staple in the diet of native Mexica during the colonial era.
Today, due to continued urbanization in Mexico City, which causes water pollution in the remaining waterways, as well as the introduction of invasive species such as tilapia and carp, the axolotls are now near extinction. The species has been listed as critically endangered in the wild, with a decreasing population of around 50 to 1,000 adult individuals.
A large captive population of axolotls currently exists, though, with the specimens being used extensively in scientific research for their remarkable ability to regenerate parts of their body, including limbs, gills and parts of their eyes and brains.
Thursday/ Centro Historico at night 🌃
Here are some night time pictures of the beautiful historical center of Mazatlán.
Wednesday/ at the Gran Acuario Mazatlán 🐠
The Gran Acuario Mazatlán hosts over 250 species of fish. It is the is the largest aquarium in Latin America.
It contains a marine museum, the Gulf of Mexico Oceanic Fish Tank, a walk-through aviary, a boardwalk along the lagoon outside, crocodile exhibits, and a capybara petting area. The penguin area and flamingo area are currently closed.
[Image from tatianabilbao.com/projects]
About 1,900 species of starfish form the taxonomic class Asteroidea. These creatures live on the seabed and are found in all the world’s oceans, from warm, tropical zones to frigid, polar regions. They can occur from the intertidal zone down to abyssal depths, at 6,000 m (20,000 ft) below the surface.
[Source: Wikipedia]
(The other is the similar-looking Gila monster, Heloderma suspectum, which is found in the southweatern United States as well).
[Source: Wikipedia]
Tuesday/ the total lunar eclipse 🌑
Here are my amateur pictures of the early morning hours’ total lunar eclipse, taken with my Sony a7CR and Tamron lens at 5 times zoom (200 mm).
The next total lunar eclipse will be in 2028.
A total lunar eclipse occurs when the entire moon slips into the umbra, during which most of the sunlight illuminating the lunar surface is blocked by Earth. But some sunlight spills over the edges of Earth and through its atmosphere, which more readily scatters blue light. That leaves red light, which has an easier time passing through the atmosphere, lighting up the face of the moon and causing it to shine scarlet.
Monday/ sunset 🌅
A few clouds and bathers made for a little more interesting sunset than the ones we had last week.
This is Olas Altas beach by central Mazatlán.
