Springing forth
Just returned from a 5 day trip to see some family. Early spring is always my favorite time of year as we get to see mother nature unfurl her colors in a progression as we travel from south to north. We left from the vicinity of 45 degree north latitude up to almost 50 degrees and the changes in foliage and wild flowers on the way was interesting to say the least.
Going out the Columbia Gorge there were no flowers but the trees were starting to bud. As we traversed the Cascade Range wild poppies began to appear and Tri-cities was looking like spring was already unfolding.
This was where we turned north and made our way up Hiway 395 on our way to Deer Park, Wash.
The further north we went the less signs of spring were evident.
During our stay we did explore up towards Colville and as the 5 days went by changes became pronounced. As we were leaving yesterday (Monday) wildflowers were blooming everywhere. Trees were beginning to blossom and windshield bugs began to appear.
Beautiful drive home, although the headwind played havoc with my gas mileage. So, cruising along at 55 mph I got a chance to study the scenery a bit better and watch spring itself blossom before us the farther south we went.
By the time we got home (45.5 degrees) everything was blooming, wildflowers were everywhere, and the trees were fully leaving out, all in 5 days. There was even a foot tall weed sticking up out of the middle of my straw covered garden. Now I gotta go to work.
But with all the crises across the pond, I guess we're lucky to still be here.
And the garden has suddenly become much more important today.
The thread is open, is everybody still there?
Comments
Good morning earthling1. Very busy here and spotty
on the participation, but still around (who did that?). We've had not one thing after another, bit boatloads of things upon each others' heels interwpersed with stuff like yesterday's infusion and today's dental appt (routine).
Anyway, glad to hear that spring sprung, it's been here for a while, but an unusually rainy one. Tons of flowers and blooming trees and shrubs. Gophers are back, one out front and one out back. Trickier crop this time, my surefire trap has let me down more than once.
Lotsa news from all directions, much of which I'm trying to ignore. Of course, lotsa fake news, no doubt outweighing by volume the real news but I really limit my exposure to sources of same. I don't even have time to read all the ones I should - I have to make a checklist or something.
Anyway, time to get going
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Heh, the jury questionnaire
for Trumps jury selection process asks for the sources of information you peruse to form your opinions.
That would be almost a hundred different sites online and stations on tv and radio .
They would obviously dismiss me.
In the jury pool, dumbasses are king.
Thanks for the post.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Gotta love the spring
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Nature unfurling from buds to leaves, peepers in the ponds.
Birdies and critters going wild trying to mate.
Your story reminds me of the time we left New England in the spring,
toured Iceland for a week. it was winter when we left here and pretty much
winter in the Nordic country. When we got back to Boston, it was
summer-like weather. People in shorts and tees.
All we had was winter gear till getting back home.
Suddenly, everything was green.
Glad you had a good trip. Thanks for the OT!
Lol….shitlibs are outraged
.
because of course they are. They are firmly behind the capital police suing Trump for the injuries they received on 1/6. Well Trump organized the gathering that day and then he told people to march to the capital. The media often leaves out that he said "peacefully protest."
Now the 5th circuit is allowing injured police to sue the head of BLM for organizing the protests that turned violent. Oh noes!!
Hey remember when they cheered Alex Jones being banned from the Twit? And then Trump? You should see the outrage when they get banned from the Twit and U-Tube. Only the goose's sh*t stinks and the gander’s smells like roses.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Love your tagline
Yeah, I remember him saying "peacefully'.
Innocence means nothing in America today. It gets buried in inuendo, fake news, and outright lies.
And I can't stand Trump.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Me neither
But I’m tired of the hypocrisy about Trump being naught after Bush got a pass on torture and spying and from the great saint Obama who not only continued all the wars he inherited, but he also expanded.
I enjoy what Turley writes about all the trials Trump is facing. The hush money trial is the most ridiculous one. Not only has statute of limitations expired, but Hillary and Obama broke campaign finance laws much worse and they only got fined and the media barely covered it.
Turley:
And these cases could have and should have happened years ago, but doing them all now interferes with his election campaign.
I think the one about him lying to the banks to get better loan rates is ridiculous. The judge just made up how he thought Trump’s Florida compound was worth without consulting anyone who would actually know. And the fine was excessively high and meant to punish him.
The documents case is just as asinine. Clinton’s case already set precedent and besides Biden and Pence did the same, but aren’t being charged. Trump is the only one who had the right to declassify documents, but he’s the only one being charged?
If the Supreme Court doesn’t allow presidential immunity then I want to see every living president brought up on charges for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Can you imagine the shitlib outrage if Biden was charged for taking classified documents? Maybe he would have been if his mind wasn’t cottage cheese.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
The Dems know Biden can't win
-
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on an even playing field, so they are pulling out all of the stops.
Seems the PTB would rather have a vegetable than a loose cannon.
As always, it doesn't matter
.... which candidate is elected President. The entire system is a tangle of corruption and injustice. This has always been obvious. The people have never stood against it or updated the obsolete constitution.
The people are the only ones who have the power to clean up the system. But they have not done so.
So this is what they get.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
If the Ds know they can't beat Trump
and they have TDS, why is Biden on the ballot? And no D primaries?
Party politics wastes our precious time, all the time.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Even people like me
who never supported Trump and considered him a fraud from the start can see blatant election interference and thorough rigging.
There should be NO American citizen that cannot see the dystopia our country has become.
We know now beyond any shadow of doubt that someone else has complete control of our government.
Even fervent supporters of Biden have to know.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
This trial is Bread and Circus
and will come back to bite some asses.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
DJT still dropping
DJT
Somehow
even this is rigged. It would not surprise me in the least.
If none of this works to keep him out of the White House, they will have only one option left.
He will be JFKed.
And if that doesn't spark civil war, Americans of all persuasions will be revealed as dumbass sheep resigned to grazing the pasture until slaughter time.
Sad.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Spring north
Hi all, Hey E1,
Sounds like a nice trip!
There is nothing like the unfurling of spring.
North with the Spring, is an awesome read on the subject. Edwin Way Teale. All of his natural history works are worth reading. His Popular Science probably was too, I never read that. In North with the Spring he and his wife Nellie document a spring they spent going from the Everglades to Canada via the Appalachians. One of a series of four books, America's seasons. Last one won a Pulitzer when they were real.
Going up and down the mountains carefully recording which birds and flowers were at what stage of life cycle at which altitude. I think it was from this work it has long been said spring moves north at 12-13 miles per day. I forget the elevational gain but it was well-quantified as well. Phenology rocks!
Anyone that lives around elevation is quite aware of spring's crawl upslope. Where you want to bird or butterfly, where the fish are biting, is in the bloom zone. So you progress uphill until you hit that, and that is where all the birds and bugs will be as spring moves up the mountain. Every week you might need to go 500' or so higher, maybe 1000' or more.
The dude was brilliant as was his wife, and a great writer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Way_Teale
We are getting fairly leafed out here but the drought has so far screwed our wildflower shows. Barely over an inch in last 6 weeks just blows it for lots of species for the year. They don't even sprout.
Spring forth beautiful people!
Happy trails all!
edit to fix mis-placed return key causing premature wrap-around. I hate when that happens...
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein
Putting that book on my list
Thanks Dystopian.
Was born in Appalachia but left at an early age. Would love to read about their travails.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Good afternoon, e1!
I remember so many awkward travel and weather events. Like, traveling in summer clothing wit no more than a sweater, then getting into a snow flurry in both Wyoming and in Ohio. And heavy snow and freezing weather in Frankfurt, then landing in Houston in 80 deg. weather.
Glad you enjoyed spring springing in real time.
And I hope that damn weed is now in a burn pile.
I am headed to Galveston in a couple of days to attend a seminar on various legislative updates to various sections of law. Some probate, some criminal, for family law code. After I get bored to death for 2 1/2 hours of lectures, I hope to dine at a good restaurant, hope to enjoy a view of the sun setting at the beach. Lovely water birds, and refreshing breeze to view and feel from the balcony. Maybe some pictures...we shall see.
Thanks for the OT, pal!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Can't you get someone
to record those seminars and you could go fishing or something?
Have a safe trip anyway, and have some good texmex dishes while your there.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
In person, or no credit for the hours toward our
mandatory 15 hours of legal ed. per year.
If I had wanted to pay $450 for a hotel room for a free MCLE (Cost would be about $375 otherwise), I could watch it on a channel on the TV in my room. heh...
Dear One is gonna drop me off, check out Crystal Beach, then come pick me up, and we will check in at a Sea Wall hotel we stayed in recently. It was a great location, and every room has a balcony view of the Gulf. For Galveston, its' price is very reasonable.
The cuisine in Galveston at trendy restaurants is seafood and TexMex. He loves Gulf shrimp, I love fajitas. Restaurants abound.
I hope he will locate and explore the location, maybe a park, where birding is the main draw.
I wanted to stay over a second night, but we made the decision to come home Friday, spend only Thursday night.
We are attending a party Saturday to celebrate a friend winning the election for sheriff against an incumbent. Quite a statement! The man and his family have been my clients and my friends for years.
He understood I would not put up his signs, pass around his brochures, because I work for everyone, regardless of political affiliations.
We will go, meet like minds, make new friends. The public made their choice, politics is over, now it is time to find our common ground.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
The speed of spring...
We used the 1st daffodil bloom at several schools along our longitude to measure the speed of spring. Those same schools measured the length of the shadow of a meter stick at noon on the equinox to calculate the size of planet Earth also. https://www.schoolsobservatory.org/solstick/method
Glad you had a good trip!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”