Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This really is a full service blog.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Cole is on a roll !

… among the most cringeworthy communications in the history of the alphabet!

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

People are complicated. Love is not.

In my day, never was longer.

I really should read my own blog.

We’re not going back!

“That’s what the insurrection act is for!”

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Also Nesting

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Also Nesting

by | 206 Comments

This post is in: 

Commentor Melissa M:

Over the weekend I noticed my own house finch nest located on the eave supports for our garage. One egg was perched precariously on the edge of the nest, so I quickly popped it in with its brethren-to-be. Momma has been seen sitting on them since, so no harm done. I’ll let you know when there are updates!

***********

On a different arm of the home-love axis, a lawn-owner after my own weed-friendly heart, via the Washington Post:

Robert Stricker — 31, insurance actuary, reluctant lawn owner for nearly five years — would be perfectly content if every yard on his block was a jungle of weeds, all equal in ugliness.

He accepts that this is not the world in which he lives.

Rather, he and his wife, Abby, live in the United States — in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, specifically, where lawns are basically social caste symbols, and Stricker has no ambitions of ever leaving the weeded class.

His lawn is “going for that messy I-just-woke-up look,” he said. “It’s just crabgrass, as far as the eye can see.”…

He thought he had surrendered in the lawn battle long ago, but last week the war found him, anyway.

Abby Stricker came home one afternoon after her volunteer shift at an animal shelter to find a sign planted amid the balding grass and stray leaves of their yard.

“Your lawn was not treated today,” the sign read. “Your neighbor’s was.” It listed a 1-800 number for Dr. Green lawn care.

Abby sent a photo of the sign to Robert, who, in a fit of irritation, posted the photo on Reddit.

“Shaming us for our lawn quality I guess?” he wrote. And before Stricker had come home from the office and plucked the thing out of his yard, the sign had enraged the Internet…

Unbeknown to Stricker, however, one of his Reddit viewers was the owner of Dr. Green Services, Ryan Van Haastrecht.

“I thought the posts were actually quite funny, to be honest,” Van Haastrecht said. “What’s amazing about this story and how viral it’s gone is we were literally only doing this for about two days.”

It was a new marketing gimmick gone awry, the owner said. After treating a lawn, his technicians had been instructed to place signs in the yard of all neighbors — not just those with ugly lawns.

“We weren’t trying to shame anybody,” Van Haastrecht said. “Just trying to do something a little bit creative. … Certainly I’m not thinking this was a great idea, necessarily.”

Van Haastrecht said he ended the sign gimmick as soon as he saw the reaction to Stricker’s photo on Reddit. For whatever reason, he said, his business has increased since the short-lived campaign…

***********
Despite the late spring around here (in April, when this article still appeared, there was still snow in our yard) the transplanted mail-order tomatoes are doing nicely. Several of them even have green fruit swelling, so Murphy the Trickster God willing we’ll have home-grown tomatoes in time for Independence Day!

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

Reader Interactions

206Comments

  1. 1.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Picked up a couple yards of leaf mulch yesterday soooo…. Weeding and mulching, weeding and mulching. Gonna plant some dill, peppermint, catnip and petunias with my squash, hopefully to help keep the squash bugs at bay. Petunias are going into the tomatoes too as they are supposed to help with hornworms. I planted some liatris in the walkway beds and they all came up just fine and are just this side of blooming. Except for the ones that have had their heads cut off. Same thing happens with my sunflowers, tho that critter usually waits until a few days after they bloom. I’d really like to know what it is that does this, then I could throttle their gods in their beds.

  2. 2.

    raven

    We’re back from the beach and now the “real” retirement begins for my bride. She told me she had worked out a schedule for herself 1 hr morning walk, 2 hrs garden, 2hrs artwork, nuther hour of exercise 2hrs whatever! She’s never been able to stop her gardening when she gets going but she’s always been constricted to the weekends. We shall see.

  3. 3.

    Lapassionara

    @OzarkHillbilly: weeding here. I will be leaving on Tuesday for a few weeks, and I have no doubt that the weeds will have taken over again when I return. I learned that poke salat seeds live for up to 43 years, so I will have young poke salat around for the rest of my lifetime.

  6. 6.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: I don’t think that’s in her buddha nature but there is a two hour gap in there if we look at an 8hr day. I do know that her mom had a heart attack, had a decent recovery and was told to back off her intense gardening. She died in her sleep after a heavy day of working in her yard. My wife is well aware of the heart problems inherent family so I hope the fitness thing will become a habit.

  9. 9.

    Gin & Tonic

    Got to the airport too goddamn early and five minutes before boarding found there’s a ground stop at ORD. So I sit and wait.

  10. 10.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Tony Joe White – Polk Salad Annie

    Her daddy was lazy and no count, claimed he had a bad back
    All her brothers were fit for was stealin’ watermelons
    Out of my truck patch
    Polk salad Annie, the gators got your granny
    Everybody said it was a shame
    Cause her momma was a workin’ on the chain gang
    (Sock a little polk salad to me, you know I need me a mess of it)

  15. 15.

    satby

    Heavy rain about to start here for the next two hours, so no yard chores for me. I have an appointment with the eye doctor I used to work for, I have either a vitreous detachment or a retinal tear in going on in my right eye (most probably the former). That’s at 2:30 so it’ll blow the middle of my day best case scenario. Worst case she has to refer me out to an MD.

    But all the recent rain has been good for all my newly planted trees and shrubs, they appear to be thriving.

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    My garden? Oh, you mean the produce department at Safeway? =)

    Anyway, I should know better than to start my Sunday morning with the Post’s business section…I missed this when it came out online a few days ago: Howard Schultz Is The Answer to All Our Prayers And is Mos Def Not a Dirty Hippie

    Seriously Roger Lowenstein?

    Imagine, finally, a contest between fear and trust, which polar opposites Trump’s and Schultz’s business careers, respectively, represent. Let Trump go on saying the world is full of enemies, enemies and imagined enemies being the oxygen he inhales.

    Um, Roger, we had a contest between fear and trust, or should I say fear + Russia + several $B in free media + the ‘both sides’ mentality working overtime, and trust. But whatever.

    Schultz is a born promoter with a sometimes self-congratulatory air who can sound, at least in print, as though he drank too many of his double espressos. He has the politician’s penchant for characterizing private success as an expression of public virtue. In his first book, “Pour Your Heart Into It,” he described when, after he had retired as CEO and Starbucks hit a rough patch, he returned to the saddle. “Love is why I had come back as CEO,” he wrote, not sparing the saccharine. He also took stock options — an unseemly practice for a billionaire executive who already had ample financial incentive.

    Reporters will discover more flaws; we are well used to the fact that political candidates aren’t perfect. I’d take him over Trump in a nanosecond. But the fantasy of November 2020 is a long way off. First, Schultz has an equally important mission: to resurrect the Democratic Party, meaning the Democratic Party of Bill Clinton and JFK — liberal internationalist, pro-growth and economically sensible. Even — let’s say it out loud —”pro-business.”

    Pro-business does not mean, necessarily, either lowering or raising corporate taxes, or governing in the narrow interest of Schultz’s richly paid fellow CEOs.

    Oh like hell. Schultz is already bleating publicly about how providing health care for every citizen is too lofty a goal, as if every other Western democracy doesn’t already do it one way or another. I want someone who can fucking walk and chew gum – be ‘pro-business’ but also insist on going back to or exceeding the corporate tax rates we had under Obama’s booming economy.

    But wait! There’s more!

    Pro-business is a mind-set. It means recognizing that no redistribution of income can succeed if the underlying economy that creates the income is not itself successful. It means recognizing that success in business is a good thing.

    Remarkable this needs saying in the country that all but invented modern capitalism, but the center has fallen away from the Democratic Party. One of Trump’s most corrosive effects is to have destroyed the appeal of moderation.

    Do. Not. Lecture us about what a ‘pro-business mind-set’ looks like, Roger. Again, Democrats can walk and chew gum – we recognize perfectly well that the health of the economy is important. That’s why we keep fixing the fucking thing after every Republican administration. And we find ‘moderation’ perfectly appealing – that’s why we want to drag Trumpov right the hell out of the WH and tar & feather him. To restore regular governance of this country!

    Even before the last election, Bernie Sanders, a socialist, had more energy than any of the Democrats. In this cycle, among elected office holders, Elizabeth Warren has more purchase among blue voters than anyone else. Sanders and Warren both routinely demonize bankers and corporations. Rhetoric to the contrary, profitmaking banks — well-regulated, and with regulations that are strictly enforced — are a good thing, so that the next returning voyager from Italy with a worthy idea can get a loan.

    Among potential Democratic contenders, you scarcely hear a favorable word about corporations — even to say “favorable” and “corporations” in the same sentence sounds a little funny these days. It shouldn’t. Though they are loath to admit it, the Democrats’ enthusiasm for trade is scarcely greater than that of the White House.

    Yes…we Dems, we’re all against trade…(eyeroll) (headdesk) (punchwall)

    Ah hell, let’s just wrap this up so I can email Lowenstein and tell him that hippie-punchers suck…

    As both a capitalist and liberal, he knows that desirable social policies (including protecting the environment, on which he has been outspoken) also entail costs, regardless of who is paying for them. He recognizes, or has the experience to recognize, that politics involves trade-offs. The appeal of Schultz is not tethered to a particular policy, but it is informed by the idea that liberal capitalism and liberal democracy are not in conflict (in fact, each is a pillar of the other). The hope — this writer’s hope — is that Schultz can reclaim the disappearing middle-ground in American politics.

    As if today’s Democratic Party isn’t already the middle ground among how we could choose to govern ourselves(!)
    Roger, you suck.
    On to the rest of the paper…

  19. 19.

    Schlemazel

    @Lapassionara:
    I have had a lot of different greens but not poke, what does it taste like?

    I love having nesting birds nearby. Years ago we watched a cardinal pair rise their brood right in front of our bedroom window. We see chickadee and robin nests from our deck but nothing as cool as having them at arm’s length. COle & now Malissa M thanks for the pictures!

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @Jeffro: John Delaney is a “pro-business” Dem who has already announced his candidacy. I’d vote for him before voting for an unknown like Shultz.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gindy51: Remove it and splat that fucker on the sidewalk. No, I am not particularly fond of cowbirds, why do you ask?

    ps: good catch Gindy

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Schlemazel: More seriously, it tastes like poke salat, it’s unique. Also poisonous, so you need to pick only from young plants before the red starts creeping up the stalk (or just a little pink starting) and boil the leaves twice (fresh water for each boil). Delicious!

  26. 26.

    Schlemazel

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Truly we live in an age of miracles!

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I see you too like to live dangerously.

    Seriously, I read stuff like that or eat stuff like huckleberries and realize how close to starving our ancestors must have been!

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Schlemazel: Well, I draw the line at Fugu. Seriously, how many people had to die before they got it right? And why oh why did they feel the need to keep trying?

    “Well, Fred died when he caught the fish, Kevin died cleaning it. So did John, Paul, and George but Ringo got the cleaning right. Unfortunately he died cooking it. Duane and Greg died eating it but Dicky just got really really sick, so I think we might be on to something here.”

  32. 32.

    Central Planning

    I’m traveling to Orlando today. Gate agent just came on looking for people to voluntarily check their luggage. Um, no. I actually want my luggage to get to my destination with me, and then not have to wait around for 45 minutes while it’s unloaded and delivered to the carousel.

    Unfortunately, I’m in group D, so my chances of my bag making it to the overhead bin are slim :/

    On the plus side, it’s a week of learning, customers, and heat AND humidity!

  34. 34.

    debbie

    @raven:

    Hope she doesn’t beat up on herself if she doesn’t stick to that strict schedule. I’d fail in the first day!

  36. 36.

    Schlemazel

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I do wonder how they got around to figuring that one out. I understand that if done correctly there is a bit of a psychedelic effect from eating it. Strychnine is also a psychedelic. If you take a little it causes hallucinations, take a tiny bit more & it causes you to die.

    Who figured out how to eat an artichoke and rhubarb or that the custard pear is very tasty but the seeds are very deadly?

  37. 37.

    jnfr

    I picked our first batch of strawberries yesterday. Just getting around to putting in tomatoes and such. Roses are blooming, the peony flowers have already faded, and my small purple lily is covered in buds. Has been in the high 80s/low 90s here along the Front Range so summer is definitely in full swing.

  39. 39.

    debbie

    You gardeners might enjoy today’s Google Doodle memorializing the garden gnome. Or not.

  40. 40.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @jeffreyw: wow. really nice design. but she must break her back watering all those individual plants.

  41. 41.

    jeffreyw

    @JPL: Thanks! Cell phone cameras are so competent these days that my DSLRs are withering away, forlorn in their jackets of undisturbed dust.

  42. 42.

    WereBear

    @satby: Oh, best of luck on a good outcome!

    Just spent an hour redoing my book cover as a square… only to discover it still won’t work on mobile.

    #FirstWorldProblems

    #CaTao (a hashtag I think I made up myself!)

    Fortunately for me, I’ve been a techie since there’s been techie… started with punch cards!

  43. 43.

    Immanentize

    We are having a beautiful weekend near Boston. 70s during the day, 50s at night. Garden is growing. My transplanted volunteer roses are blooming! And I need to do some repotting today while I smoke a brisket.

  44. 44.

    Baud

    I’m not an Atrios fan, but he’s right this morning when he says to cancel your subscription to the NYT.

    SINGAPORE — When President Trump declared that he did not really need to prepare for his legacy-defining meeting with North Korea’s leader, he drew sighs or snickers from veterans of past negotiations. But he had a point: In his own unorthodox way, Mr. Trump has been preparing for this encounter his entire adult life.

  45. 45.

    Schlemazel

    @satby:
    SOrry to hear that. I had a vitreous detachment that lasted about 6 months. It was never horrible but it was annoying as heck. Apparently if it is bad enough they can operate but it didn’t sound to me like my OD thought it was really useful to do that. Get better soon.

  46. 46.

    satby

    @debbie: @WereBear: thanks! I’m pretty sure it’s PVD, and I just want to get that verified. There’s really nothing to do but monitor it to be sure it doesn’t tear the retina. As a person with high myopia (very nearsighted) I know I have a slightly higher risk than average. But I’m not actually worried. It just started early Saturday so I’m getting it checked early.
    Strange eye symptoms? Get it checked early! Prevents bigger, sometimes untreatable problems later.

  47. 47.

    debbie

    @satby:

    Exactly! I was nervous until I got the specialist to tell me how I’d know if it progressed to a tear. He listed the symptoms and said I had 24 hours to get to an ER. That I can do — with one eye closed! /nyuck nyuck nyuck/

  48. 48.

    satby

    @Schlemazel: thanks! Yes, I read it can take months to clear, and though this is only mildly annoying right now I can see it’s going to get more annoying ?.
    Still, only annoying is a good thing compared to potential loss of vision, so I’ll take it.

  50. 50.

    Juju

    @satby: If there is no diminution of your visual field and you are only seeing black looking thready things in your vision field, it’s probably a vitreal tear. If your field of vision has those thready looking things and is getting smaller call opthomology emergency and see a retina specialist asap. I had a vitreal on a Saturday night followed by the same thing in the other eye the following Sunday morning. It was very unusual to have both eyes do that within hours of each other, but I learned that very nearsighted people or older people are more likely to have vitreal tears. These things always seem to happen during the weekend. I hope things go well for you.

  51. 51.

    jeffreyw

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: We’re pretty well set up for watering:
    https://i.imgur.com/eT20bnB.jpg
    This hose reel is working out well, it’s better than any other we have tried. That sprinkler wand is long enough to spare her back.
    This automatic retractable hose reel is getting a workout and is holding up well so far. It holds 65″ of hose:
    https://i.imgur.com/Ocnmfk0.jpg

    As an aside, that black hose on the big reel is Sears Best from back in the day when that meant something. We’ve replaced some ends. We bought it 30 years ago or so.

  53. 53.

    Skepticat

    Back in midcoast Maine for a few months, and back to actual gardening rather than watching the Bahamian jungle overwhelm everything. My insignificant other’s late wife had glorious perennial gardens that he had basically ignored after her death, and last summer I made a concerned effort to save them from the blackberries, ditch lilies, weeds, rugosas, milkweed, and grass that were crowding out the beauties. I must have moved two thousand ditch lilies to the outskirts and divided and replanted a thousand named day lilies. Now I’m trying to maintain that progress and make more. Darn the need to work in between; I envy your bride, Raven, as my work constricts even the weekends. But I’m a Yankee, so I wouldn’t be comfortable actually doing only things I enjoy.

  55. 55.

    Sab

    @WereBear: Love your book. I have been practicing on our grey girl cat, and she acts like she likes me for the first time in years.

    Cats aren’t dogs. Who knew?

  56. 56.

    Central Planning

    @jeffreyw: why do you need a hose reel for 65″ of hose? ?

    That reminds me of the part in Spinal Tap where they write on a napkin they want an 11″ replica of Stonehenge when they meant 11′.

  57. 57.

    Lapassionara

    @Baud: What a complete joke. What a delusional take. No wonder US voters are uninformed. FTFNYT!

  58. 58.

    Ohio Mom

    @satby: I am also very nearsighted. Lately, every few years, my eyes do something else I don’t know what to make of until the doctor explains it to me: once it was an ocular migraine with all sorts of flashing lights, two other times it was my vitreous collapsing, turning everything dark gray in that eye.

    One thing I’ve noticed, when I call my opthamologist’s office and relay my symptoms, the response is always, “You can come in right now.” Always makes me nervous to hear that, I’d much prefer some variation of Take two aspirin.

    Hope I am not jinxing myself but so far my retinas are both in one piece.

  60. 60.

    satby

    @Immanentize: As much as I enjoy “having gardened” as A.L. put it, I stink at planning out the placement of the things I decide to grow. My first summer I ordered and planted 6 different kinds of lilacs. Two are doing wonderfully, one is doing pretty well, and I moved the other three to better spots (I hope) this year and planted other shrubs or trees in their place. I dug up two roses from last year to move and will dig up a third, and put knock out roses where those two were. I have volunteer purple potatoes growing where last year’s were. In spite of my best efforts at order things surprise me ?

  63. 63.

    satby

    @Juju: thanks! Yeah, no vision changes and not even much of an increase in floaters. I wouldn’t hesitate to go to a hospital if it was otherwise, but I would drive myself back to Chicago, because we had a patient while I still was working who had a confirmed retinal tear (small, peripheral) and the local retinal specialist told my doctor to send him home and he’d see the person at his office the next day. My doctor was unhappy with that. I think it turned out ok, but I’ll go back to Chicago if I need to.
    Red states suck.

  65. 65.

    satby

    @Ohio Mom: yeah, they want you to come in right away to rule out a retinal tear, because that needs to be treated fast. So it’s good that they’re focused on getting you in ASAP just in case. Most of the time it’s not, but you want it ruled out or detected early while something can be done.

  66. 66.

    Skepticat

    @satby: Good luck with that, and we hope for the best. Having had a detached retina and with several weak spots susceptible to tearing, I have special empathy for your situation.

  67. 67.

    germy

    @Baud:

    SINGAPORE — When President Trump declared that he did not really need to prepare for his legacy-defining meeting with North Korea’s leader, he drew sighs or snickers from veterans of past negotiations. But he had a point: In his own unorthodox way, Mr. Trump has been preparing for this encounter his entire adult life.

    There is nothing Trump could do that the New York Times wouldn’t contort itself to rationalize. https://t.co/WYU2CNGP3e— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) June 10, 2018

    But we knew that.

  68. 68.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @jeffreyw: post some more photos. your garden is really interesting (near and wide shots).

    also too, which camera phone are you using?

    thanks for sharing.

  70. 70.

    CliosFanBoy

    my neighbor gets lawn treatment and I got one of those signs in my lawn as well. (I recycled it)> Yeah, his lawn looks better than mine, but I don;t want all those chemicals over our lawn.

  72. 72.

    opiejeanne

    @jeffreyw: My mom broke her ankle tripping over a hose lying on the lawn as she was taking down a line of washing, so I hear you. We have a faucet next to the front porch and it’s the only place we can hook up a hose for the front gardens.and no room for a retractor or any other method of containment. mr opiejeanne put a splitter on it so there are two hoses stretched across the front walk. I think we should have a plumber relocate it to the front of the porch maybe, where there are no steps because we’re always telling each other to watch out for the hoses, and I’d hate to have someone else trip and hurt themselves.

  73. 73.

    OldDave

    @WereBear:

    started with punch cards

    I missed Hollerith cards – not for data entry, but because they were *perfect* for note taking.

  77. 77.

    germy

    I used to live next door to a republican who got the professional lawn treatment every year. The truck would come and spray insecticides, etc. all over, then leave little yellow warning signs (“do not let children play on treated grass”), as required by law.

    He’d come home from work the same day and quickly remove all the signs. He apparently wanted his neighbors to believe his flawless lawn was the result of his good character, rather than any application of chemicals.

    Funny thing is, he was obsessive about keeping his lawn mowed short. He’d be out there on his riding mower sometimes twice a week. (The property really wasn’t that large, but he liked sitting like a king on his riding mower throne.)

    One summer there was a terrible drought. No rain for weeks and weeks. He kept mowing, however, as his OCD demanded.

    I was always more casual about my lawn. I’d learned if you keep the blades of grass longer, more morning dew will form, which will then keep the lawn hydrated during a drought.

    After a few weeks of no rain, the lawn he’d fussed over was burnt and yellow. Mine was lush and green. He didn’t like that at all.

  80. 80.

    MelissaM

    Good morning, and thanks Annie Laurie for posting the picture. I was wondering about that extra-speckled egg, so I’ll have to pluck it out, cause I’d rather have finches.

    More rain this AM, which is good for us, and also means I get out of mowing the lawn! Alas, lots of inside chores to do, so it doesn’t mean no work.

  81. 81.

    Schlemazel

    @WereBear:
    Early on I maintained TTY33s and card readers. That does not even seem like it is part of my life it is so long agi

  84. 84.

    Schlemazel

    @germy:
    We have a neighbor who mows twice a week, though thankfully not into the regular treatment. Their lawn always looks better early & ours better when it gets dry.

  86. 86.

    Baud

    More NYT bull, this time in an op/ed (via Outside the Beltway)

    History professors Lily Geismer and Matthew D. Lassiter take to the op-ed pages of the NYT to argue “Turning Affluent Suburbs Blue Isn’t Worth the Cost.”

    …..
    Democrats cannot cater to white swing voters in affluent suburbs and also promote policies that fundamentally challenge income inequality, exclusionary zoning, housing segregation, school inequality, police brutality and mass incarceration.
    …..
    The Democratic fixation on upscale white suburbs also distorts policies and diverts resources that could generate higher turnout among nonwhite voting blocs that are crucial to the party’s fortunes and too often taken for granted. It should not be that hard for liberalism to challenge the Republican tax scheme to redistribute income upward, and build on Mr. Obama’s important but inadequate health care reform, with policy solutions that address the real diversity of American suburbia.

    That strategy would embrace a broad economic platform promoted by progressives like Elizabeth Warren and Stacey Abrams in her race for governor in Georgia.

    I did not realize that the Democrats were not supporting Stacy Abrams.

  87. 87.

    Elizabelle

    Good morning, jackals.

    I am so happy Justify is a Triple Crown winner. Beautiful horse, and I like that he did not race in his second year.

    SorosHorse wins!

  94. 94.

    opiejeanne

    We went to a party yesterday afternoon, my niece’s housewarming in Tacoma, and we scrounged a decent bouquet from what looked like slim pickings as we went around looking for something that would hold up as a cut flower. Stuff is either just starting or just getting past the first blast of bloom but it’s a big yard and there were enough sparse pockets of flowers.

    Spring Bouquet

    Wehn we came home it had rained buckets and most of these would have been destroyed.

  96. 96.

    Elizabelle

    @Baud: Good morning, Baud. Happy Sunday.

    @luc: Wow. So Melissa M might have saved the other birdies by posting the photo here; she can eject the cowbird or cuckoo (cuckhold) bird egg and give the nest builder’s other eggs a chance.

    Melissa: One egg was perched precariously on the edge of the nest, so I quickly popped it in with its brethren-to-be.

    Was it the imposter egg? Parasites gotta parasite. I didn’t realize they’d destroy the mother bird’s other eggs, though. So they gotta go.

  97. 97.

    chris

    Does anyone know what this pretty little flower is? I sent an email to the natural history museum but haven’t heard back yet.

    Yes, quality could be better but it’s difficult to hold the phone in one hand and the eager assistant in the other. Bert thinks he should be in all the pictures.

  98. 98.

    debbie

    @Elizabelle:

    Wasn’t that a beautiful race? He practically glided down the stretch and across the finish line.

    I don’t know why these things always tear me up.

  99. 99.

    opiejeanne

    @germy: That sounds like one of our Nazi neighbors, except his lawn never turns yellow in the summer. He waters it which is something that most people around here never bother with. He sneaked and sprayed round-up on a neighbor’s ditch, across the street from his house. His prissy wife tried to organize some of the other neighbors to pull weeds in that same yard, saying that maybe they couldn’t afford a gardener. Hell, those people’s yard looked pretty good and they had other things to do, not to mention that they have quite a bit more money than most of the neighborhood. The weeds in their ditch were minimal and this is a semi-rural area with miniature donkeys and mini-horses, sheep, chickens, goats, and alpacas in people’s front yards down the road a few houses. We, on the other hand, have a prodigious growth of wildflowers, berry vines (ugh!) and weeds in our ditch and we don’t care, except for the berry vines. There would be very sharp words if he sprayed our ditch.

    We did water our lawn the year we had the wedding in July, and we hired Scott’s that year to do some lawn care, but no poisons. We also hired a company to make the moles unhappy; they came once a month and spread something that didn’t kill them, just made them not want to burrow under the lawn.
    We don’t have a gardener, mr opiejeanne has a riding mower but it’s not very large. The bad neighbor has a mowing tractor for his tiny immaculate yard.

  100. 100.

    opiejeanne

    @jeffreyw: We need a Norman. I have been sorely tempted to hire a couple of guys standing around at the Home Depot but it feels wrong to even contemplate.

  101. 101.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    On Morning Joy, Joe Cirincione (sp?) and a woman who I gather is part of a group that has been working for Korean reconciliation for a long time are arguing that we have to hope that trump stumbles into historic brilliance in spite of himself. Reminds me of the liberal hawks making the “humanitarian” case for overthrowing Saddam. “We have to set aside our personal feelings about the man….”

  102. 102.

    Calouste

    @germy: The most straightforward explanation for TFNYT’s coverage of the shitgibbon is that at one point they were in financial difficulties and they got a cash injection in rubles with a few strings attached. Why bother setting up a propaganda operation when you can buy one for a billion or so?

  103. 103.

    Elizabelle

    @debbie: I loved when horse Restoring Hope, in dark pink silks and also trained by Bob Baffert, stepped up the pace to challenge Justify at the outset, helped get him speeding through on his way to a Triple Crown.

  104. 104.

    frosty

    @raven: Good luck to your bride! I picked up the book you recommended from the library:”The Retirement Maze”. It’s good, it describes some of the things I’m apprehensive about. I haven’t gotten to the solutions yet. :-)

  105. 105.

    sdhays

    @germy: It amazes me how mainstream commentary doesn’t discuss how there really can be no deals made under President Chaos. His entire life is a demonstration of how he doesn’t abide by his own deals, and he’s made that clear time and again in his short (but interminable) time as “President”. On top of that, his abuse of the national security loophole for raising tariffs and his petulant shitting on the Iran nuclear deal also makes clear that unless a deal is ratified by the Senate, a subsequent President is under no obligation to honor the deal. And any deal negotiated by Donald Fucking Trump has better than even odds of not being respected by the next President.

    Even assuming that it’s true that North Korea wants a deal and is willing to make real concessions towards that deal, they would be fools to do so with Trump. They, like everyone else, should just figure out ways to make him say nice things and congratulate himself on progress where none has been made and wait for the political situation in the United States to stabilize.

  107. 107.

    germy

    @Calouste:

    The most straightforward explanation

    I believe it.

    I sort of hope that all becomes public knowledge. I’d love it if they were exposed.

  108. 108.

    sdhays

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Why the fuck do they feel the need to lecture us on not hoping for a war with North Korea? The only people who want that is bloody John Bolton and his cult of warmongers, which also doesn’t get discussed enough. Sure, we can hope for a miracle, but why the hell should we be discussing miracles rather than focusing on how everything they’re doing makes one less likely?

  109. 109.

    frosty

    Garden … sigh. I’m not going to have a vegetable garden for the second year in a row. My rot-resistant lumber around the beds finally rotted and I’ve got to rebuild them. It’s all been delayed by the fact that it rains every weekend.

    Yesterday was dry, but instead of working on the beds I spent the day weeding. I’ve got something that looks like a yucca that sends runners everywhere, which root, dammit!. I cleared enough detritus out to see the mothership; I’ve got to research how to kill it now. If any of you garden jackals have a clue, let me know.

  112. 112.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @sdhays:

    Even assuming that it’s true that North Korea wants a deal and is willing to make real concessions towards that deal, they would be fools to do so with Trump.

    They are not fools. It is clear to me that by now North Korea, South Korea, and China all know what they’re dealing with it and have factored Trump’s bad personality into their plans.

  113. 113.

    germy

    @sdhays:

    Let me get this straight: Trump agreed to the G7 communique before leaving the summit and then reversed his position on the plane to Singapore. Where he is trying to convince Kim Jong Un that his word on a security assurance is his bond. Right. ??
    — Vipin Narang (@NarangVipin) June 9, 2018

  115. 115.

    sdhays

    @germy: I keep hoping that he visibly shits his own pants while doing a televised press event so that he can taste how ashamed we all feel when we see him strutting around playing “US President”.

  116. 116.

    germy

    @opiejeanne:

    That sounds like one of our Nazi neighbors

    One memory I have of our insecticide lawn neighbor was the day environmentalists invited everyone to turn off their lights. I don’t remember if it was on Earth Day or not.

    This was around the time Limbaugh was telling his listeners to disobey. And sure enough, our neighbor had every light on in his house, plus front & back porch lights.

    He had a perfect lawn, though…

  117. 117.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @sdhays: I’m not an expert, but my gut sense is that trump is going to agree to lift/modify sanctions in a way that lets South Korea give aid to the North in return for ….. family reunification?, or something like that, China will get at NORK’s mineral resources, and maybe even Japanese hostages get released (so every MSM discussion will start with ‘you have to admit it’s a good thing…”) Maybe even a formal treaty ending the Korean War. In return for some very carefully shot film of North Korean scientists dismantling a few warheads–I don’t know what this looks like or if its even possible, I’m going by what Cheryl said about public dismantling being an opportunity for other intel services to figure out how they built them– and some vague promises about further disarmament. In five years, or ten, we have a much richer and still nuclear-armed North Korea. Like I said, I hope I’m wrong and I hope Cirincione and the other optimists are right. I hoped I was wrong and the optimists were right in ’02 and ’03, too.

  118. 118.

    germy

    @sdhays:

    I keep hoping that he visibly shits his own pants

    NYT would find some way to rationalize it.

    “Finally, a U.S. president unconcerned with superficial matters of hygiene and elimination.”

  119. 119.

    different-church-lady

    @Baud:

    In his own unorthodox way, Mr. Trump has been preparing for to fuck up this encounter his entire adult life.

    Just a small editing error.

  121. 121.

    sdhays

    @Frankensteinbeck: Exactly. But our press credulously wastes time talking about “miracles”. He has told us he hasn’t prepared (although we know how lazy he is, so that’s not news), so anything that comes out of this will have been driven by China, North Korea, and South Korea. Trump is superfluous, and reporting should reflect that.

  122. 122.

    different-church-lady

    So, if Trump winds up being held hostage in NK, do we bother with a rescue mission?

  123. 123.

    germy

    @sdhays:

    He has told us he hasn’t prepared

    At the same time Rudy was saying he was “too busy preparing” to sit down with Mueller.

  124. 124.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Peace in our time

    Josh Rogin @ joshrogin
    Lindsey Graham wants Democrats to authorize the use of military force against North Korea if diplomacy fails.

    and why Democrats? Democrats are in the fucking minority in both houses.

  125. 125.

    chris

    @frosty:

    how to kill it now

    Cut it off, poke a hole in the top of the stump and pour something toxic on it and in the hole. Undiluted Roundup, motor oil and bleach are my top three choices. Vinegar might work too.

  127. 127.

    MomSense

    @germy:

    I hate it when people spray their lawns. A bunch of people started doing that in my neighborhood and it has noticeably reduced the number of bees in my gardens.

    Dandelions are a good thing. I’d eat the greens if there weren’t all this GD insecticide in the neighborhood. I mix clover with my grass seed. When mowed it just looks lovely and green. Knowing what we do about how resource intensive lawns are, we should all be transitioning away from them.

    I’ve tried to talk to those neighbors but they really just don’t care. They want a nice lawn no matter what.

  130. 130.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    I have been watching Lindsey Graham, and it’s clear to me that he is a true believer that the solution to every problem is to hurt people. Trying to get all the allies he can for his crusades is natural enough. He’s a show-boat on top of that, which meshes well with false attempts at bipartisanship.

  131. 131.

    Platonailedit

    Can’t wait for the third rate msm to breathlessly report how the traitorous turd turned presidential today. Just hours after fucking the traditional western allies. US media is the world’s worst enemy.

  132. 132.

    germy

    @MomSense:

    Dandelions are a good thing.

    They were brought over by the early European settlers. They’re not native to North America.

    Great for food (good source of iron), tea and wine. I think the yellow flowers are lovely. I never understood the hate.

    We moved a few years ago. Now we’re lawn free, thanks to perennials, ground cover, and brick & mulch paths. I haven’t touched a lawnmower in ten years.

  133. 133.

    frosty

    @chris: I’ve done that with tree of heaven and it worked for awhile. I’ve got all three of you choices, so I’ll give it a try.

    I expect the rooted runners will keep on going though. That’ll take a little more work. Or a lot, this fall. The runners go through my raspberry patch.

  136. 136.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Frankensteinbeck: a true believer that war is always the answer, and also one of the most cynical partisans in politics. IIRC he launched the whole Benghazi “scandal”, running ads about it in SC barely a month after the event, and he was two years away from re-election, but a prime Tea Party target due to his establishment ties
    ETA: @debbie: the fact that he was always relegated to the lower card in the GOP debates was one of the small pleasures of the ’16 primary

  139. 139.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    a true believer that war is always the answer

    It’s far beyond that. When McConnell gave up on ACA repeal, knowing he couldn’t get the votes for anything, it was Graham who kept pushing for something even more ghastly and cruel. That’s not his only attempt at legislative sadism, either, and when he comes out with an opinion on any policy, it’s always that something sadistic will help everyone. This kind of cruelty is a major element in Republican thinking. It should be no surprise to anyone that it has not merely believers, but champions in congress. He loves war, but he loves it as part of a broader philosophy that only hurting people solves anything.

  140. 140.

    opiejeanne

    @frosty: Tree of Heaven. Is that the tree that grew in Brooklyn? We had that one start coming up in a back corner of our previous house’s garden, coming over from a neighbor’s yard. We dug that stuff up repeatedly until it stopped showing up. I don’t remember how but the neighbor had his removed and we stopped having the problem, but we could see new shoots of it coming up on the other side of the fence.

    ETA” Ailanthus, Tree of Heaven. That was the tree that grew in Brooklyn, and now they’re dying all over New York and no one knows why.

  141. 141.

    debbie

    @chris:

    Is there no one who will bash this troublesome Kudlow?

    I welcome this stupidity. Anything that will help Trump et al. look more idiotic is fine with me.

  143. 143.

    Achrachno

    @chris: Yes, the photo leaves a bit to be desired, but I’m guessing Phyllodoce breweri, aka “red heather”. (Are you on the west side of the continent? Otherwise, some of other species of Phyllodoce.)

  144. 144.

    opiejeanne

    @chris: Trump is threatening to end all trade with the rest of the G-7 countries. I’m not sure if he can do that, but ending trade with Canada? France? The UK? Germany? Pure insanity!

  147. 147.

    PAM Dirac

    Got out a bit early to get some things done in the vineyard before the rain. Took advantage of a “last call” at Double A to get a few replacement vines for ones that died over the winter. Should get production a year earlier than waiting til next spring. While I was ordering I thought “what the heck. Let’s add a few more vidal blanc”, so those were planted today as well. Put down another dose of milky spore to try to defeat the dreaded Japanese Beetle. I wanted to catch up on mowing, but the grass is still too wet and it looks like the rain will start at any minute, so time to declare victory and see what the jackels are up to.

  149. 149.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Steve Peoples @ sppeoples
    This joke by Speaker Ryan didn’t do well here in Utah: “Truthfully though, I thought that maybe I’d just retire to get my hands on some of these entitlements. Because, it didn’t look good if I waited, cause trust me, I’ve done the math.”

    “here in Utah” was a reception honoring Orrin Hatch during Mitt Romney’s no-labels-y annual conference. This joke flopped at a wankfest put together by Willard Romney. This, the social safety net broadly defined, is what Dems should be running on.
    (IIANM the highlight of this conference a few years ago, maybe the first one, Ann Romney and Mark Halperin led a sunrise yoga session for guests.)

  150. 150.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @debbie: Tweeting comes more naturally to the man behind @dick_nixon, whom I had to contact for the sake of journalistic diligence. Justin Sherin, a playwright who lives in the Bronx, created the account in 2008 and first tweeted verbatim excerpts from Nixon’s White House tapes.
    “As a playwright, those transcripts are just a wonderland to be in,” says Sherin, 34. “His weird, muscular, convoluted syntax — it was fun to retype and live in it. It’s like a musician playing scales.”

  151. 151.

    frosty

    @opiejeanne: Ailanthus, right. My nickname for it is “Right-of-Way Tree”. It was the dominant vegetation visible from the MARC commuter train.

  152. 152.

    cleosmom

    We have a “country lawn” (and live in the country).

    Anything that’s green and doesn’t have thorns or will give you a rash, we just let it grow and mow it.

  154. 154.

    laura

    @raven: Holy Toledo!11! Your Bride sounds like a front-runner for retiree employee of the month with an ambitious and rigorous schedule. You may want to consider an intervention and discussion of the essentials of retirement ie., “Loafer’s Paradise.”
    Ive got Milkweed blooming in the yard right now. Big fuzzy sweet smelling balls of pink blossoms laden with busy bees, smattering of ladybugs and hopefully Monarch’s laying down some eggs.
    Otherwise, last year’s giant red amaranth has spread and the dripping, ropey magenta with the chartruese leaves and overall jungle look is keeping the weeds with little to no space to get more than a toe hold.
    Crikey, what a week its been for the jakaltariat. So much loss, so much kindness in responses. Lovely, interesting people sharing intimate, joyful, painful and bewildering lives and revealing truths about the human condition….each and everyone of you a treasure. Im grateful to lurk and occasionally comment.

  156. 156.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I don’t own a lawn mower. I don’t think about my lawn. We have an arrangement with a neighborhood kid to mow it on an “as-needed” basis. Which might be interpreted as “when he needs pocket change” rather than “when the grass needs cutting” but I’m OK with that.

    Before settling on this arrangement, we did once get a nastygram from the neighborhood Powers about the length of our curbside weeds.

    As for what species is actually growing out there, probably not too much of it is grass of a desirable species. The normal amount of crabgrass and dandelions, plus some sort of prickly species, like a juniper (according to Some Who Might Know). You find these little pricklers all over the the lawn and if I bothered myself about anything out there, I suppose that would be it.

    But nothing would induce me to hire a chemical company for a lawn. I have never understood that.

  157. 157.

    Amir Khalid

    @debbie:
    If Graham does run, I expect he won’t get far — not enough red meat for the rubes, not enough of a showboat. Trump went to eleven on both.

  158. 158.

    D58826

    @debbie: How big, physically, is Kim? Hopefully he has the physical strength to carry the large ladle needed to butter up Der Fuhrer!!!!!!!!

  159. 159.

    ruemara

    @Baud: They know that Dems can be slammed left & right during the elections. The right will say they’re weak & didn’t lead; the left will say both sides & Dems are worthless.

    Hey, Sat by, I hope the eye news is good news. Y’all have me concerned about things now.

  163. 163.

    debbie

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Thanks. Taking into account your link is from 2015, this is particularly interesting:

    Speaking of John Dean, what does he think of the Twitter resurrection of his former boss?

    He thinks fake Nixon is giving real Nixon a little too much credit.

    “Since Nixon needed talking points to be social with visitors, I can’t envision him using social media —he would have had staff do it!” Dean says via e-mail. “Having listened to endless hours of the real Nixon on tape, not to mention my own conversations with him, he was strikingly inept at quips, not to mention largely humorless, so he probably would have spent several hours, and several pages of his legal pad, coming up with a 140-character comment.”

    Dean never seemed trustable to me, but he sure is prescient!

  167. 167.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @debbie: I doubt Graham will got at trump directly unless the winds shift significantly. I’m not placing any bets on Kasich, but I could see him getting messianic enough to do it, and I hope he does

  169. 169.

    sdhays

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: The fever won’t break until Republicans are locked out of the Presidency and control of Congress for at least 12 years. This was true before the 2016 election, and it’s even more true now.

    And, as others have already stated in different words, Graham would hardly be an adequate standard bearer for a sane Republican Party.

  171. 171.

    Peale

    @opiejeanne: I think he’s convinced himself that he’s won a bunch of concessions from China and they’ll be buying all of our soybeans and coal, so he’s good. You’d think he was raised in 1890 somewhere, or in some country where the industries were automobiles, golf courses, hotels and soybeans and nothing else really mattered.

  173. 173.

    No Drought No More

    I’ve got a serious question that involves the life of a plum tree, and the lives of baby birds.

    My property was long ago a plum orchard. One of the trees still standing has been engulfed by ivy, which I’ve been informed will kill it eventually. Killing the ivy by slicing the roots at the base of the plum is easy enough, but I’m worried about the birds. Right now, it is, in effect, a giants bird’s nest all year round. I’ve left it alone for the five years I’ve lived here for that reason. Those birds are my friends and neighbors and fantastically entertaining. A few years ago, I actually witnessed the birds streak into the ivy a few times to avoid an attacking hawk, which bounced off the impenetrable ivy like it was a force field on Star Trek. It was very cool. Still, the ivy has to go. The plum tree must be saved, and the birds will have to set up housekeeping somewhere else.

    My question: for the sake of the birds, what will be the best time of year to cut the roots and kill the ivy? What month is the best month to serve their eviction notice (i.e., cut the roots) without endangering the lives of the newborns? I’ll check back here later this afternoon, and any advice will be greatly appreciated.

  175. 175.

    trollhattan

    @No Drought No More:
    Maybe clip it back for one season cycle and allow it to reestablish in a more controlled fashion? It’s really hard to rid ivy permanently so you’re in for a longterm tussle regardless.

  181. 181.

    Shell

    and realize how close to starving our ancestors must have been!

    How else to explain how someone was desperate enough to see if artichokes were edible?

  184. 184.

    Achrachno

    @chris: Nova Scotia, eh? My guess was not too close then; it seems you only have one rare species of Phyllodoce, so it’s very likely something else. Look up pictures of Kalmia angustifolia and see if that fits. If that’s no good, I’m done. I’m sure it’s in family Ericaceae though.

  185. 185.

    PsiFighter37

    Cory Booker’s on my flight today back from LA. Should I run into him, should I admonish him over his vote on Wilmer’s drug amendment from late 2016? /sarcasm

  186. 186.

    Steeplejack

    Always nice of a Sunday morning* to come in here and get the garden/​nature reports.

    I’m taking it low and slow after my road trip to outer Maryland yesterday. Listening to music and trying to avoid the news. The weather is nice here in NoVA: pearl gray overcast, 75°. High humidity, but not enough yet to close the windows. Supposed to get some rain later, which would be okay.

    ———
    * I’ve been looking in on and off since I got up.

  187. 187.

    CaseyL

    @satby: I had that a couple of years ago. Luckily caught it very early (be on the lookout for larger-than-normal “floaters” in your field of vision). They lasered the hole to stop the tear from getting any bigger, and I had to go back in every week for about a month to make sure no new tears appeared. No trouble since then, so best of luck to you!

  188. 188.

    chris

    @Achrachno:Thanks again, I think that’s it or very close. That’s surely a laurel leaf.

    Going to see if I can get a better picture. If they are still in bloom. Will post here if so.

  189. 189.

    Baud

    Ron Paul is sad. (CNN)

    Swiss voters have overwhelmingly rejected a proposed overhaul of the country’s banking system that had been described as “dangerous” by its critics.

    Over 75% of voters rejected the “sovereign money” proposal in a referendum on Sunday, according to provisional results published by the government.

    The initiative would have prohibited commercial banks from lending more money than they had in deposits, leaving the country’s central bank the only source of new money.

  190. 190.

    oldgold

    Robert Stricker, welcome to my world!
    For decades my Weed Test Plot has weathered a multitude Monsanto aiders and abettors. Yet my creeping charlie, foxtail and dandelions continue to thrive.

  191. 191.

    ruemara

    I just updated my cable modem. Everything’s shiny & new. Plus I got a new backup drive, I mean, I’ve only got 2T left on my 4T, so I got a 6T. EVERYTHING IS SO PRETTY!

  192. 192.

    J R in WV

    @chris:

    That could be a rhododendron blossom that’s partly gone already, although the leaves are a little more glossy than usual on our local rhodos. Evergreen, keeps its leaves through the winter, they curl up below freezing? All traits of a rhododendron…

  194. 194.

    p.

    how many know lawns were “invented” by the rich in europe.
    growing grass to show they didn’t need to grow their own food…

  195. 195.

    debbie

    @JPL:

    Justin Trudeau is Trump’s Saddam Hussein.

    Or something like that. I think he intentionally mispronounced Macron’s first name yesterday. It sounded more like Emmanuelle than Emmanuel.

  196. 196.

    Amir Khalid

    @debbie:

    I think he intentionally mispronounced Macron’s first name yesterday. It sounded more like Emmanuelle than Emmanuel.

    A brilliant example of the Commander of Cheese’s biting wit.

  197. 197.

    GregMulka

    Fortunately/Unfortunately we keeping getting just enough rain to keep everything green. Fortunately because droughts are, well, bad. Unfortunately because every year I just want the grass to die so I don’t have to cut it when evening temperatures are approximately the surface of the sun with four billion percent humidity.

    I’m taking the lawnmower down to 1 this week.

  199. 199.

    Dan B

    Chris at 97
    Are you in eastern US? The pleated flower bud looks like a low growing Kalmia. It could be a pseudo heath but their buds are not pleated.

  201. 201.

    Dan B

    Jeffro at 16

    We’ve been neighbors of Howard and Sherrie (sp?) Schultz. There’s a big achilles heel. Schultz sold the beloved former world champion Seattle Sonics to a crew from Oklahoma. They gave Schultz their word that the team would stay in Seattle. Idiot.

  202. 202.

    chris

    @Achrachno: I didn’t find the original one but here is today’s shot. (Very windy on the hill, best of eight.) It’s Kalmia polifolia, Bog Laurel as Dan B. says above and I think the original one was too.

    @Dan B: Bingo! Thank you!

    @J R in WV: Close but I think we got it.

    Thanks all, you’ve rekindled my interest in photography and now I’m gonna have to dig out a tripod.

    Here’s a much better shot of a Lady’s Slipper, Nova Scotia’s provincial flower, growing just outside my cabin.

  203. 203.

    chris

    @p.:

    how many know lawns were “invented” by the rich in europe.
    growing grass to show they didn’t need to grow their own food…

    Lawns were originally the first line of defence for castles and fortified houses. Cut down all the trees, level the ground and mow with sheep and nobody can sneak up on you.

    ETA In time of course they became status symbols.

  204. 204.

    chris

    @JPL: Christ, what an asshole!

    @debbie: Canadian conservatives have always implied that Justin is too weak and “girly” for the job. Curiously they’re all backing him today. In Canada the dairy lobby fucks with you!

  206. 206.

    namekarB

    The House Finch is invasive in the Eastern U.S.. Originally native to the western United States and Mexico, it has spread rapidly through the east since a small number of caged birds were released in New York in 1940. Just another example of humans wreaking havoc on the environment

Comments are closed.