US Prisoner Release Joy. Stark Ambassador Warning to German Business, Human and Spider Snacks

There was a big welcome, filmed in slow motion, for the last three American prisoners released from North Korea. Despite taking place at 3 am in Joint Base Andrews, there was a big media presence as a grateful Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak-song and Kim Sang Duk shared smiles with President Trump.

The consequences of the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal were spelt out in a direct manner by the US
Ambassador,  Richard Grenell. He tweeted, within hours of taking up his post, “German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.”. He later defended the tweet stating that it was his manner to be honest, that he had a different style of diplomacy.

I spent the day catching up with a week's worth of emails and arranging appointments. Whilst making a cup of tea, I also thought I would make some use of the almond grounds left over from making almond milk for the mediaeval pudding on Monday. I added sugar to the pulp and lad out marble sized balls on the mixture onto non-stick baking paper and roasted them in the oven at 180 degreesC for about 20 minutes and then again for the same time at about 120 degreesC. The balls flattened out, resulting in a fused sheet with a pattern vaguely like that of carp scales. However, when cooled, they did form a passable snack whilst sitting on the garden bench for an afternoon tea break.

Whilst the almond scales were baking, I saw movement outside on the kitchen window ledge. A bee had caught it's hind-leg in an invisible strand of spider's silk. As I watched, a small spider, one eighth of the size of the bee approached the trapped insect and began trying to further entangle it with more invisible threads. The response of the bee was to try and brush off the strands, thus inadvertently self-entangling itself further. Over a period of 10 minutes, the spider patiently and cautiously continued to add more silk. Only when it was safe enough to approach without being clubbed by the much larger bee's legs, did the the spider move in and administer it's bite, then scurry back to the safety of its home in the gap under the window. Checking back a couple of hours later, the tiny spider had hauled in its giant haul to its hiding place. Today it would eat well. It could then be without another meal for up to a month.