Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Not all heroes wear capes.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

In after Baud. Damn.

I really should read my own blog.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

One way or another, he’s a liar.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

The willow is too close to the house.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Republicans in disarray!

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Springtime in the Ozarks

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Springtime in the Ozarks

by | 166 Comments

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The indefatigable and gifted Ozark Hillbilly, making those of us still in winter-blasted climes jealous:

These are the signs of an early Ozark spring:

Pic #1: Early maple seeds

Pic #2: an early Dogwood blossom.

Pic #3: Forsythia blossoms on the ground.


Pic #4: Mayapples.

Pic #5: Fiddlehead ferns.

Pic #6: Close up fiddlehead ferns.

Pic #7: Flutterby on cherry blossom

At top: Just because I love this photo, dogwood against a clear blue sky

It’s particularly bitter because I love dogwoods, but the ones around here have all succumbed to an anthracnose blight.

What’s going on in your garden (planning) this week?

Reader Interactions

166Comments

  1. 1.

    satby

    I will have to visit the Ozarks one day, your pictures are beautiful Ozark!
    The dogwood blossoms against the blue sky could be a painting.

  4. 4.

    robert thompson

    My parents, both 83 years old, live at the top of the Bostons. The Bostons are what passes for mountains in the ozarks. They are steep, but actually a dissected plateau, like most of the Ozarks. Spring is yet to show there; at least in full regalia. It will be a week or to before the Dogwood blooms and this other shrub that I can’t remember the name of, but it has pinkish-purple flowers. Might be some other kind of dogwood. I have not been back there in awhile. It is pretty.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: And if you ever do, we have a spare bed. There is no place in the world more beautiful than the Ozarks on a spring day.

  6. 6.

    bystander

    Nice pics, Ozark. I have this childhood memory of driving through the Ozarks one spring and seeing dogwoods all in bloom. Growing up in KC, it seems they showed us the same film each year in grade school about Our State, so it may just be a film sequence I recall.

    I have much more graphic memories of Branson before it was turned into LawrenceWelk Village.

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Those photos are just gorgeous, Ozark Hillbilly! I especially love the fiddlehead ferns, but it’s really hard to choose — they’re all lovely! Thanks for starting the day off with some natural beauty.

  8. 8.

    robert thompson

    @bystander: Good God did that ever happen. I suppose it was inevitable. I enjoy Eureka Springs much more despite the heavy hand of Christian “entertainment” associated with it. Cool place though. Very New Age religion in the town itself; lots of old hotels bars and restaurants.

  9. 9.

    greennotGreen

    I live at the top of a ridge 25 miles northwest of Nashville. My mother and niece live at a lower elevation 25 miles southeast of Nashville. I can drive through three different weeks of spring in the 50 miles between us. At the highest and most northerly, my property is the most delayed, but even here the dogwoods are starting to bloom. Off the ridge down toward the river, many more trees and shrubs have begun to leaf out. In Nashville proper, it’s full on spring, and farther south, out of the heat of the city (who knew construction cranes were so exothermic?), the calendar has moved back a week; ornamental plums and cherries are in their full regalia.

    Spring is my favorite season!

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @robert thompson:

    this other shrub that I can’t remember the name of, but it has pinkish-purple flowers.

    Red Bud.

    Yeah, another week or 2 before things really open up. After such a warm Feb. and first couple weeks of March, things have cooled back down to more normal temps since the big freeze. Really slowed things down. The freeze hurt my cherries, they are blooming at a much reduced rate this year as many of the blooms just dropped their petals as soon as they opened. The only wild tree that was effected was the Service berry. Everything else is opening up as normal.

    I have spent a lot of time in the Bostons, literally inside of them. ;-) (I used to cave) Mostly Newton, Searcy, Stone, Izzard, and Independence counties. Almost bought 20 acres of Newton Co ridge above the Big Piney near Limestone. I don’t see them much these days but I’ve got a lot of friends down that way.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @greennotGreen: Same here. STL is always a couple weeks ahead of us in the Spring and behind us in the Fall. My buddy up in Franklin Co is about a week ahead of us here in Washington Co. Kind of strange as our elevations are not that much different.

    @JPL: @SiubhanDuinne: Glad you guys enjoy them.

  14. 14.

    robert thompson

    @OzarkHillbilly: That’s it! Redbud. The part of the Bostons you spelunked is as picturesque as the west side. The karst topography is so iconic of the whole area. Limestone springs with clear clean water gushing from them fascinates me. Never had the courage to do real caving other the guided tourist caves. Still impressive though. The whole region must be a labyrinth.

  15. 15.

    satby

    Before work today I’m getting out and planting the shrubs that got delivered this week. Four blueberry bushes and two more lilacs. Once planted, they all will be under their own mini-greenhouses (plastic jugs with the bottoms cut off) or in tree tubes, at least until all danger of frost has passed. Still waiting for my 12 arborday.org sticks with roots of which I’m keeping maybe 6 and sharing the rest, but there’s two redbuds coming in that bundle and I can’t wait to plant those beauties. Two white dogwood too, I may keep both or give one away. In about three years, I will have spring blossoms.

  17. 17.

    robert thompson

    @OzarkHillbilly: yes your photos are beautiful. Thank you. It’s interesting that your fruit trees are subject to the vagaries of weather. My folks have the same problem. A lot of trees they set out did not make it or don’t produce a lot. Same county; Washington. You may not want to say but Fayetteville perhaps? The Paris of Arkansas.

  22. 22.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Beautiful pictures.

    A raccoon was trying to rip his way into my eaves last night. Come daylight, we’ll see if he succeeded. I like nature better when it stays outside.

  23. 23.

    debit

    Beautiful pictures, Ozark. As others have said, the one up top could be a painting.

    Things are warming up here, so I have some seeds starting inside under a variety of grow lights. Next step is to get the back yard cleaned up so I can place my raised beds. I’m going to take a couple days off after Tax Day since I really haven’t had a full weekend since January.

    @satby: You are shaming me with your industriousness.

  24. 24.

    Mark

    I spent from March 16, 1976 until some time in May at Fort Leonard Wood, MO., for basic training. My memories of springtime in the Ozarks aren’t good memories. Sorry.

  25. 25.

    robert thompson

    @OzarkHillbilly: My folks’ property is on top a mountain so they don’t have any springs to speak of. When they first moved in they relied on cisterns to water the gardens and lawns. Then city water moved in and they really don’t use them much any more.

  28. 28.

    bemused

    In far north MN, so far the only sign of spring is the first tick crawling on our dog.

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @robert thompson: My most famous (among cavers) caving buddy is a professor/asst professor (??? unsure his exact title/position) of geology at UofA. I have been to Fayetteville a few times.

    And oh yeah, @raven: Welcome to the Big Leagues, son. ;-)

  31. 31.

    debit

    @Iowa Old Lady: Yeah, no shit. I just wonder how the exterminator removes them. I once had a squirrel in the walls and sat there hoping it got itself out, because otherwise my choices were: rip off the plaster and have an angry squirrel running free in the house or let it die in there and rip off the plaster to remove the corpse. Neither were attractive.

  32. 32.

    ThresherK

    @Iowa Old Lady: Have you noticed almost every pest (not insect) control company’s logo has a smiling raccoon on it? (It’s right up there with the Italian chef assuring you that the pizza is “The Greatest!”)

    We discovered the raccoon logos when my MiL’s chimney needs to be cleared of a critter nest.

  37. 37.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: yeah, the problem with unseasonably warm. But, next year!
    When I’m done I’ll have two primrose lilacs (very pale yellow), one Beauty of Moscow (pale pink opening to white) one reddish color, one variegated purple, and two old fashioned lilacs. Because some are slightly later blooming, I should have a month of lilac fragrances in my future. It’ll take 5 years for them all to be flowering and get to about 4 feet in size, but that’s a better investment than the stock market as far as I’m concerned.

  39. 39.

    satby

    @debit: actually, I am in my third cup of coffee, and I beat myself up every day that I don’t get enough done.
    I confessed to my good friend last night that I have become a putter-er. I putter around, occasionally accomplishing what I want, but easily distracted by a book, or just sitting on the porch with the dogs enjoying the weather when it’s nice.
    There are worse fates ?

  42. 42.

    satby

    @debit: they use humane traps. With canned cat food a lot of the time. I’ve rescued baby raccoons after the moms have been killed in roads. I like raccoons, and bats, and cyotes. All animals. They only are nuisances because we invade their spaces.
    That said, don’t want them in the house.

  44. 44.

    Suburban Mom

    Work related travel has kept me from assessing the damage from the weird up and down temperatures in NJ. Day lillies and iris are alive but burned from cold and blanched from being under the snow for a week. Peach trees look like they are going to bloom. No clue about my redbuds yet – they just look like sticks.

  47. 47.

    debit

    @satby: I’m with you. I have dedicated squirrel feeders because I don’t like the thought of anything going hungry, especially when it’s cold. But yes, unless they’re pets, critters should not be in the house.

  48. 48.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @robert thompson: He is. He has been on expeditions to damn near every corner of this planet. Did his post Doc in Slovenia, home of the Karst Mountains (and where the paternal side of my family hails from).

  49. 49.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Iowa Old Lady: We had a raccoon fall through a skylight one night (we had the skylight open but there was a screen up there – it fell through the screen) into our bathroom, and it spent the next 2 hours trying to climb back out and trashing our bathroom in the process. The exterminator just got a bunch of boards and made a path from the bathroom to the back door and away it went. We spent the entire next day cleaning the bathroom

  51. 51.

    Immanentize

    Thank you Ozark! I shoveled slush yesterday and there is some snow still down from last night. Ugh. I am worried my forsythia were frozen before blooming. That happened last year and it sucked. Please keep the spring pictures coming so we in northern climes can dream….

  52. 52.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @debit: At a friend’s house, the exterminator told her he’d put a cage over the opening and catch the animal when it left the house. He wasn’t sure yet if it was a squirrel or raccoon. If it was a squirrel, he’s put it in the evening assuming it was in for the night. Raccoons are nocturnal, so he’d put that cage up in the day and catch it as it left.

    Funny thing, the exterminators had this kind of Duck Dynasty look going and plainly thought the friend and I were a couple, but they were okay with that. She asked them what they’d do with the squirrel, and without missing a beat one of them said they’d take it to a squirrel sanctuary.

  55. 55.

    Just One More Canuck

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, not fun – fortunately, our landlord (we were renting at the time) was a good guy and helped us out with a lot of the repair and cleanup (after he stopped laughing). Our cat was pretty freaked for a couple of days. We were lucky she didn’t come face to face with it

    We wouldn’t (at least I wouldn’t) have a skylight again – they seem like a nice idea, but critters, leaks – not worth it

  56. 56.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “I love you Robot.” If you don’t go “Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…..” at the cuteness of this little girl mistaking a broken water heater for a robot, you have no soul and deserve to die a most foul death.

  57. 57.

    Mary G

    Years ago, my mom and I were in the mountains and drove through Lake Arrowhead where they had a ton of dogwood trees in full bloom. It was breathtaking. I was sad that I couldn’t grow them in the flatlands where I lived.

  60. 60.

    SFAW

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    She asked them what they’d do with the squirrel, and without missing a beat one of them said they’d take it to a squirrel sanctuary.

    In the PRM, apparently it is illegal to relocate squirrels and other mammalian pests. So all of us here with Hav-a-hart traps might have saved our money.

    ETA: Yes, I’m aware that not all varmints caught in Hav-a-harts are “healthy enough to survive the trip to Sunny Acres Sanctuary,” IYKWIMAITYD.

  62. 62.

    WereBear

    We have a local center for Adirondack trails and learning in a nature preserve, and the squirrels who live in the trees near the birdfeeder complex are the fattest ones I’ve ever seen. Like they are all working out back there in the woods, and will try out for the WWF.

  65. 65.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    Great, so now I know that I’m below a broken water heater when it comes to human affection. Thanks, Ozark!

    Better that you know now, so that you can come up with a response for the “Baud! 2020!” campaign.

    “Baud 2020! Really, nicer than a broken water heater! Honest! No, I really mean it!”

  67. 67.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I can’t figure out why some forsythia flowered and some didn’t. Daffodils, I can tell by the direction of their exposure, but not forsythia. Happily though, azaleas began blossoming last week, so I can enjoy that for a week before winter reasserts itself.

    Oh and nice pictures, especially the cherry blossoms.

  68. 68.

    SFAW

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    If you don’t go “Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…..” at the cuteness of this little girl mistaking a broken water heater for a robot, you have no soul and deserve to die a most foul death.

    I’m probably there already, no matter what my response is.

  69. 69.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    That little girl is a fickle-hearted wench. One minute she’s all huggy and “I love you, Robot!” but she’s outta there the minute a hunky manhole cover catches her eye.

    Poor Robot. Poor sad, betrayed Robot.

  72. 72.

    satby

    @debbie: that’s why they all get a little shelter of their own. It protects from frost, and snow over them is just more insulation. I have milk jugs and dog cookie containers all over the perimeter of my yard. But, I was just out with the dogs, and it’s dank out there, so another cuppa joe and classical music for me. I don’t do dank.

  74. 74.

    Currants

    Gorgeous pictures, Ozark, Especially love the top one, the dogwoods against the sky.

  75. 75.

    JPL

    This afternoon I’m attending a forum featuring district 6 republican and democratic candidates. In a perfect world the other democrats there would throw their support behind Ossoff. Yeah, it’s not a perfect world.

  76. 76.

    satby

    @JPL: I hope enough people show up to help them see reason, or at least make the public case that Dems need to consolidate behind one candidate.

  79. 79.

    JPL

    @satby: I’m conflicted because my role will be to support a local city council candidate and hand out fliers, so have to appear as a nonpartisan. The turnout should be pretty good, and I hope that Jon knocks it out of the park. Karen Handel the front runner on the repub side and did not appear at a republican only debate, and she’s not planning on going today.
    Some including Huff Post, have been touting high turnout among dems, for early voting as a good sign. I would not trust it, because early voting for council is not until the tenth. Folks are waiting until that time, to vote for both council and district 6.

  80. 80.

    JMG

    I bet this has been commented on from earlier posts, but I just read it myself. Today was Nick Kristof’s turn at the Times to write the mandatory “Trump voters still like Trump” piece from “the heartland.” There have been about googleplex of these stories published or broadcast in media since Jan. 20, many by very good reporters, and like Kristof, none of them seem able to find Trump supporters willing to go on the record who aren’t both really dumb and really racist. All those reporters can’t be cherry picking their quotes. That’s just the reality.

  81. 81.

    hedgehog mobile

    Happy Opening Day all. If my Rockies get to .500 I will be a happy woman. ⚾

  82. 82.

    WereBear

    @JMG: It’s just astonishing how these jerks cry they want help: when President Obama offered it to them, gave it to them, toured the place to explain it to them.

    There must be something about President Obama that made them want to ignore all of that. Wonder if we will ever figure that out.

    I was telling Mr WereBear just last night that I am done with these people. They have shown what they are capable of, and it is horrible, and I don’t want to hear their excuses.

  83. 83.

    Waratah

    @OzarkHillbilly: thank you wonderful photos
    I have seen the Ozarks in spring with full bloom wildflowers but not this early.
    My first taste of just picked blueberries was in the Ozarks and the first time I
    I saw peak autumn foliage.

  86. 86.

    ThresherK

    @JPL: Any WilmerBroze on the stage, or likely to be in attendance?

    @JMG: Taken to its logical conclusion, there will be an eight-way pile up of taxis carrying Friedman, Bobo, Kristoff, Cokehead, Mrs. Greenspan (fill in the others), on their way to find the one last unreconstructed Trump-supporting RealMurkin, who will then run for Congress. The only question is, When?

  87. 87.

    laura

    I have a big orange tree that us beginning it’s bloom this week. Just opening the back door causes a wave of heavenly orange blossom scent to hit your in the face.
    And today’s the Giants home opener.
    Mary G, we went to a family reunion in Lake Arrowhead a few years back. I had never recalled seeing dogwood trees before and the sheer numbers in bloom were stunning and now they are impossible to ignore though rare in the Sacramento valley. Thank you for the remembery.

  93. 93.

    opiejeanne

    @Mary G: We were just in Blue Jay, right next to Lake Arrowhead. Got home two weeks ago today. The dogwoods were getting ready to bloom when we left and there were daffodils everywhere, except our garden which is in Daley Canyon and cooler than other areas.

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly: Double thanks – for the sweet link and for making me laugh with your comment. Also, gorgeous photos!

    Raven, can’t wait to see your photos next week.

  98. 98.

    WaterGirl

    @debit: @satby: Am I gonna have to fight you guys?

    @Baud: I see that they got there first. sniff sniff

    edit: and I see that I am talking to myself, is this thread over already?

  100. 100.

    Quinerly

    @Yarrow:
    Pretty sure it’s a viral thing..severe sinusitis…triggered by too much Utah red dust and allergies (I even sneezed and scared Poco when I looked at Ozark’s pics ?) Seems better today. Will call the doctor if not substantially better by Tuesday. Thanks for asking. I never get sick but when I do, it always knocks me down pretty hard.

  102. 102.

    Lizzy L

    I miss east coast dogwoods! Can’t grow them in the SF Bay Area — I don’t know why. We grow a native variety called the Pacific Dogwood, which has broad white flowers. They don’t like cold winters, which is why you won’t see them in New Jersey, and they can grow up to 50 feet.

  103. 103.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @satby: Puts me in mind of the most appropriate Valentine’s Day card I ever received:

    COVER: Little mousie clutching large red heart. Caption: Will you be my Valentine?

    INSIDE: It’s a thankless job but someone has to do it.

    The sender was a friend of long standing (roughly half of my 30-odd [very odd] years) who I’d been pursuing doggedly, through a shotgun wedding, a child, a divorce, and a lengthy cohabitation (all hers). And it was largely thankless on my part.

    Maybe a coupla years after receipt of that card she decided that since she’d never meet the love of her life, she might as well marry the solid citizen with solid employment who’d been chasing her. We were sitting in a bar discussing which of our houses we’d sell when she met the love of her life. Walked away from me & never came back. They’ve been married >30 yrs now utterly happily. And I owe that guy a case of whatever he drinks, for saving me from a few years of torment ending in losing at least half of everything I’d earned. Because I am morally certain that if she’d never met TLOHL, she would’ve taken the frustration out on me, every damn day.

    Sour grapes, you say? Hah. A few weeks after the walkaway, when they were already cohabiting, her mother (who’d been eager to welcome me into the family with open arms) said to me, I know you’re devastated right now, but trust me, in a few years the only emotion you’ll feel is relief. Dam’f she wasn’t right too.

    (FTR a few years ago her now-grown son told me one of his greatest regrets was never having had me for a stepfather. I told him I regretted never having had him for a stepson.)

    Ah well. Long chat from the Garden of Good & Evil, I guess.

  104. 104.

    prob50

    Great LA Times Editorial today, First In A Series a full pager, touching on several of Dolt 45’s most “troubling traits” with the promise that the Times Editorial Board will be discussing them more fully “in the days ahead”, and calling on the people to be active and make their voices heard.

    I get the paper edition so you’ll have to hunt the on-line edition up yourselves, but it’s worth it for the read.

  105. 105.

    WereBear

    @Uncle Cosmo: You have some remarkable perspective on it now.

    As a young person, I became fussier and fussier about romantic love, because it became clear to me that this was the number one way to mess yourself up, but good.

  106. 106.

    Jim, Foolish Litersalist

    @ThresherK: Did you see the big rally coming up in Chicago? Himself, Sarandon, Moore, Nina Turner, the head of the nurses union who said Trump would bring us single payer, and Van “Tonight he became our President!” Jones

  107. 107.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @ThresherK: Did you see the big rally coming up in Chicago? Himself, Sarandon, Moore, Nina Turner, the head of the nurses union who said Trump would bring us single payer, and Van “Tonight he became our President!” Jones

  109. 109.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Oh god, Joy Reid tying together trumpy running away from the first pitch with his psychotic bragging about having been “the best baseball player in New York” when he was in high school. May it go viral.

    @WereBear: in one of the long profiles of the recently ghostly Kellyanne Conway, the reporter talked to her mother who said Obama polarized the country by going to all those black funerals and she was thrilled to be at trump’s inaugural because she hadn’t heard a president mention god since Bush. The most interesting thing about that is that it’s hard to imagine that KAC has never heard these sentiments, and thought it would be fine if her old racist mother talked to a reporter.

  110. 110.

    FlyingToaster

    @AnneLaurie OP:

    It’s particularly bitter because I love dogwoods, but the ones around here have all succumbed to an anthracnose blight.

    When we relandscaped back in 2004, we had a Kousa Dogwood put in, which is both short (and therefore under the power lines) and blight-resistant. It grows slowly enough that we — or more likely our successors in this house — will be able to keep the top trimmed. There are taller varieties (hybridized with C.Florida) which one of the houses across the street has, and doesn’t seem to be suffering at all.

  112. 112.

    germy

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    the reporter talked to her mother who said Obama polarized the country by going to all those black funerals

    Did she mean the funeral for the black churchgoers who were slaughtered by the white supremacist?

  115. 115.

    WaterGirl

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I wish I hadn’t read that! I have always liked Van Jones, but I didn’t know he had done that. Ignorance really is bliss sometimes. But probably not often, when you take the long view.

  116. 116.

    Baud

    @WaterGirl: Now you’re just making the broken water heater feel bad.

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    she hadn’t heard a president mention god since Bush.

    I still find it interesting that in all the talk on the left about reaching out to Trump voters, no one suggests being more overtly religious. Probably because a substantial number of white male progressives are athiest but not a lot of white male progressives are black.

  117. 117.

    WaterGirl

    @Another Scott: I think it would be really fun to see a map with a mark for where the regular BJ commenters live. Maybe one map for the US and another map of the whole world.

  124. 124.

    WaterGirl

    @Iowa Old Lady: I am laughing! Are they following you because you are an author? Or just because you are awesome? Or is there a social media curriculum now where they learn about twitter and such?

  127. 127.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Chicago? Oh, good, close enough for me to not go to it. Ugh.

    Barack and Michelle! Now that I would go to in a heartbeat!

  131. 131.

    WereBear

    In totally irrelevant news, something fell on my laptop and fortunately only scraped the protective skin, and the laptop seems fine.

    Time to buy another piece of art from DecalGirl!

    I am ridiculously fond of these things.

  133. 133.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @WaterGirl: I haven’t followed Jones closely but I’ve mostly liked what I’ve seen, and as I understand he’s a real grassroots activist and organizer, but to go from his hysterical reaction to trump’s awful speech to a Democrats Are The Real Enemy rally, suggests maybe Van should take a couple of deep breaths and get some broader perspective. The rest of them… Oy.

    ETA: @Baud: @WaterGirl: it would be hilarious if the Obamas went out to dinner or spoke at community center and took all the press away

  134. 134.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I can remember being about 7 and asking my mom what “regurgitate” meant. She asked me why I was asking, and I said it’s because my sisters told me my mom had regurgitated me and I wanted to know what that meant.

    I think 2 certain someones got in trouble that day, but I was not one of them.

  137. 137.

    WaterGirl

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I haven’t followed Jones closely but I’ve mostly liked what I’ve seen, and as I understand he’s a real grassroots activist and organizer…

    That sums up how I have always felt about Van Jones. What is he thinking participating in that? It took me a couple of months to get my bearings after the election, let’s hope is just running a bit behind on that timeline.

  138. 138.

    Brachiator

    Coming late to the thread. Lazy Sunday morning.

    Great photos at top. Really like the fiddlehead ferns.

  139. 139.

    debbie

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Kelly’s mother is a liar. I just found a transcript of Obama’s first inaugural speech, did a word search, and found five instances of the word “God.” Bitch.

    Speaking of Trump, I’ve heard a couple excerpts of his weekly address and noticed it had background music. What kind of thinking could be behind this?

  140. 140.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    That LA Times editorial is scathing, an eloquent, white-hot lance taken to the boil that is Trump. In the parlance of pop culture, that’s gonna leave a mark.

  142. 142.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @debbie: I was slow to get on the Obama train because I found him a bit too jesussy– I’m not Bill Maher atheist, but in his famous 2004 speech he said “we worship an awesome God in the blue states”, and that struck me as a fundie dog-whistle– I think that’s the title of a modern hymn favored by mega-church types.

    And Mother Fitzpatrick is a nasty old racist who probably misses Ratzinger and would call Homeland security if Jesus knocked on her front door.

    ETA: @West of the Rockies (been a while): heh. or Crazy Train?

  143. 143.

    Another Scott

    @debbie: Mom probably only watches Fox and only listenst listens to RWNJ radio, and only gets personal messages and e-mail forwards from like-minded people. It’s certainly possible that she’s been lied to for years about what Obama said and didn’t bother to check herself.

    That’s why I’m not as angry at voters like her as I am at the media that relentlessly pushes this evil nonsense…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  144. 144.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Jim, Foolish Litersalist: That literally sounds like something nightmares are made of. So this is what they’ll be doing for the next four years while Trump destroys the country? I don’t know who will be running against Trump in 2020 but Bernie will not get my vote. Period.

  146. 146.

    Brachiator

    @prob50:

    Great LA Times Editorial today, First In A Series a full pager

    Do you recall the title of the editorial? I will look for it later this morning.

    And you subscribe to the paper edition? A rare bird, these days.

  148. 148.

    Yarrow

    @Quinerly: Glad you are feeling a bit better. Rest up. Maybe you didn’t really want to come home from your trip and getting sick was your body’s way of telling you.

    @debbie:

    Speaking of Trump, I’ve heard a couple excerpts of his weekly address and noticed it had background music. What kind of thinking could be behind this?

    Wouldn’t put it past them to use music that is supposed to get the messages to stick in your brain better. Or maybe there’s something subliminal in the music itself. They are creepy as hell and extremely manipulative.

  149. 149.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Lizzy L:

    That’s excellent! Now I’m tempted to subscribe to the LA Times — except for following an occasional link, I’m mostly unfamiliar with it. At any rate, I’ll most certainly read Parts II, III and IV in the editorial series.

  151. 151.

    CaseyL

    @prob50: I read the first one on-line. Very measured tone, which made the content all the more damning. Nice to see at least one major news outlet making it clear that none of this is “normal,” or acceptable.

  152. 152.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    I think it would be really fun to see a map with a mark for where the regular BJ commenters live. Maybe one map for the US, one of Russia, and another map of the whole world.

    There. Now the trolls can play.

  153. 153.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: M^4 (and others here) probably have ways making such a thing (via IP addresses). Dunno if he can actually do it without JGC’s permission to access the logs (or whatever), though.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  155. 155.

    debbie

    @Yarrow:

    The snippet was too short to figure out the music, but it seemed like the kind of background music you’d hear for a campaign video.

  156. 156.

    debbie

    @debbie:

    Found it on youtube, but don’t recognize the music. The two previous messages had no soundtrack. Also, I am so sick of these three-quarters shots.

  157. 157.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @CaseyL:

    Countdown to the first Twump treets about “the failing, lying LA Times” and “LA Times in California full of illegals who voted for Crooked Hillary! Change useless libel laws NOW!”

  158. 158.

    Brachiator

    @Uncle Cosmo: Uncle Cosmo, very touching story. It sounds as though time has given you a ruefully wise perspective on things.

    I don’t know if you live in a small City, but it is interesting that you still had some interaction with the stepson.

    And it sounds as though the mother was a friend, even if that friendship was … complicated. And the mother’s words to you… She also seems quite a character, and someone who cared about you.

  160. 160.

    Brachiator

    @glaukopis: Yeah, the Times certainly comes after Trump, but the language and tone is out of the 1950s. For example a reference to

    Trump’s cockamamie border wall

    Who the hell talks or writes like that?

    And the editorial’s fire is dampened with timidity

    “Or, alternately, will the system itself — the Constitution, the courts, the permanent bureaucracy, the Congress, the Democrats, the marchers in the streets — protect us from him as he alienates more and more allies at home and abroad, steps on his own message and creates chaos at the expense of his ability to accomplish his goals?”

    The Republican Congress has thrown down for Trump, and it looks as though they will turn the Supreme Court into their creature. For the near term, it’s not looking good for the opposition.

    Still, I hope this gives Trump heartburn.

  162. 162.

    WaterGirl

    @Brachiator: I see what you mean, but I find myself wondering if that was a deliberate attempt to pull more people into the series. (in a good way) Ask the question in the first of the series, maybe by the time you answer the question outright in #2 or 3 or 4 the reader who might not have been anti-trump when they started reading might be open to hearing their answer.

  163. 163.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Brachiator: — the Constitution, the courts, the permanent bureaucracy, the Congress, the Democrats, the marchers in the streets —

    that is, to be charitable, an in artfully constructed and incomplete clause, but there is also this in the op/ed

    Members of Congress — including and especially Republicans — must find the political courage to stand up to Trump.

    it is just amazing to me, even after all this time, how much credibility McCain and Graham get form the MSM for saying things, including saying that some day, if trump keeps this up, they’re gonna actually do something, by golly, they really mean it.

  164. 164.

    satby

    @Uncle Cosmo: I always come back to read the threads I had to leave, and just wanted to thank you for sharing your story. Being able to look back at what might have been, and having relief and acceptance instead of regret, is a very good thing!

  166. 166.

    Soprano2

    Over here in Springfield, MO I think spring is about 2 weeks ahead of schedule. All of the daffodils have already bloomed and most are gone, the tulips are already blooming (that usually doesn’t happen until the 2nd or 3rd week of April). The bad freeze we had in mid-March did slow everything down – before that I’d say things were about a month ahead!! I’ve never had leaves for the surprise lilies coming up the third week of January – but I did this year. It’s also been drier than normal – we didn’t get .50″ of rain in February, which is extremely dry.

    Spring in the Ozarks is usually incredibly beautiful. Every now and then we have one where the crabapples, dogwoods and redbuds all bloom in the same two week period. That’s amazing!!

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