apologies

sorry for my not posting any blogs of late.  the number one reason is that i am currently working on a book proposal, and i don't know how much blog material can or should end up in a book (but i, hopefully, will find out). reason number two is because of the large number of comments being posted in chinese.  i can't read them, and i know that most people reading this blog (written in english), cannot read them, and so while they may be very well intended, they are annoying.  at last i have figured out a way of restricting comments to "members of the blog", and hopefully that will solve it.
meanwhile (writing fast because internet time is still very dear), I'm well, and the rice field is 50 percent well (there has been more than two weeks of very little rain), and i promise to be a better blogger!