As I am browsing the World Wide Web, the news keep piling up: the shooting in Charleston, North Carolina; Donald Trump’s presidential gambit; the bicentenary of Napoleon’s demise at Waterloo; the uncertain future of prime rates of interest in America and Europe; the surge in the number of displaced people around the world; Hong Kong’s defiance of Beijing; the financial troubles with Greece; the Republican dismissal of the pope’s climate change encyclical; the ceaseless strife between Airbus and Boeing; the first woman on a dollar bill… Confusing, to say the least. For comfort, I turn to the orchid that is flowering in my beloved’s apartment. Six flowers are open right now, but there are three buds to go still. One of them is half open already, and the other two will open in a day or at most two. While I am writing in the livingroom, my beloved is preparing our dinner in the kitchen. And that sums up the home news pretty well. Clear enough, to be sure.

Addendum (June 19, 2015)

All the orchid flowers are open this morning! Great news, indeed. The nine of them are wonderful to behold from my armchair. As I write, my beloved is in her office. In a few hours, we will get together for a meal in one of our favorite restaurants. As I occasionally browse the World Wide Web, the news keep piling up one more time: the Greek prime minister went to see Putin once again; Denmark’s elections show a sharp turn against immigrants; a white supremacist is held in church killing in South Carolina; the British exit from the European Union is in turmoil… I do my best to stick to the home news, though. Hey, a large fly just flew in through one of the open windows, but it flew out after a quick tour of the livingroom. To my surprise, it did not seem to notice me, let alone my laptop with one of the online newspapers on the screen. Amazingly, it was also oblivious to the blooming orchid. Ah, the home news are piling up at a clip!