2021

Today the Texas abortion restrictions go up. Senate Bill 8 bans abortions at 6 weeks, which is unconstitutional under Roe v Wade. But that ruling will be under fire at the Supreme Court, next year. 85% to 90% of abortions happen after 6 weeks.

Local courts in Texas are unable to stop this fiasco because of the interesting way enforcement is set up... The law offers $10,000 to vigilantes to enforce the law by suing whatever random persons who may have helped a person obtain an abortion.

It looks like the abortion clinics and the Planned Parenthoods in Texas will be complying with this new law. But Whole Women's Health (whose clinics AWESOMELY provided abortions until 11:56pm last night!!!) and Planned Parenthood will be helping people get an abortion out-of-state? And Austin Women's Health Center has a great blog post with lots of support organizations: How To Get An Abortion After Texas SB8. (if you have some extra cash, those are all brilliant places to donate to!)

Because, really! Putting women and others in danger by limiting health care is... just evil.

I don't know how we're going to fix this and I don't have a lot of hope since the Supreme Court has turned into a majority religious cult.

But I will do what I do... I'm sending postcards of encouragement to the clinics in Texas.

Follow-up...

∞ The Texas Abortion Ban Hinges On 'Fetal Heartbeat.' Doctors Call That Misleading
Yep. I've said before this crap drives me crazy... An Embryo has no heart at this stage of development. And the heartbeat is just a visual flutter of electrical activity on a ultrasound. no heart. no beat.

∞ The Supreme Court Heads Toward Reversing Abortion Rights

Sign and pass on...
∞ Tell Congress to support the Women's Health Protection Act

Super Important!! Watch and Learn!
∞ Mama Doctor Jones: ObGyn Explains Abortion Ban in Texas

First apple on a young tree.

ha, I don't know why, but I do like taking photos of apples!

Bleh, the air quality was 111 when I left the house this morning, "Unhealthy For Sensitive Groups". The wildfire at Oakridge, the Middle Fork Complex, is about 40 miles to the southeast, and has been burning since 29 July. But we haven't had too many bad air quality days like this.

What the...?? A Woolly Bear!!!

I've not seen Woolly Bears for years! Many years. Maybe even like a decade.

Still with the crappy air...

This is a terrible pic, from across the pond. But you know how I love the vultures!!

Green Herons are always exciting to see because not only are they pretty shy, but their beautiful feathers make for amazing camouflage. It's easy to just walk on by, not seeing anybody! Fortunately, today my bike path friend with Little Man the Chihuahua brought this one to my attention!!

And then, I was going to walk on past the Community Garden, but look who was in there...

A Red Shoulder Hawk! Mice and snakes are on the menu for this one, and both can be found at the Community Garden.

And then, since I was already inside the Garden, I took some pics of the prettys.

When I walk at the river, I usually head towards the wildlife area. But I'm changing it up today and I went to the Rose Garden instead!

I walked across the river to Alton Baker park and took a pic of the pedestrian bridge I just crossed...

It's called the Peter DeFazio Bridge.

That Bridge Hunter website is pretty cool! I discovered that a pedestrian bridge near my home was actually built over a different river in 1912! It was moved from the Crooked River, to the Siuslaw River, and then to our little Amazon Creek in 1986!

Had no idea they moved bridges! That kind of interesting history is a good reason to take more photos of bridges!! :)

Yuck, bad air quality! Sometimes the smoke from the Middle Fork Complex wildfire reaches us.

I just love these sunflowers in our garden plot with the rusty red. And so do the pollinators, like this Yellow Jacket! :)

Borage is sometimes called Star Flower! :)

There were 983,922 new covid cases in the US this week, averaging 140,560 cases every day. And on average, 1,364 people died of covid every day.

There are currently 893 active covid cases in my town and 24 people have died in the past week. And the newspaper is now reporting on ICU beds. There are 7 available today. Yikes! 87.3% of hospitalized people are unvaccinated (69 of 79).

Crisis Rationing of health care begins in northern Idaho. The hospitals there are too full to take care of everyone.

And Texas seems to be killing a lot of people... an average of 228 people died of covid Every Day in the past week. Every Day.

Gah! Put on a mask, already! Get Vax'd! Stop Dying!!

Before a walk in the forest, I go round the Rhododendron Garden... First there's five wild turkeys who want to cross the garden path in front of me...

Once they are all gathered on the other side of the path, I look to see what they're doing next.

There's a deer who wants to say hello to the turkeys... she's stretched her neck down and giving one of the turkeys a sniff! haha!

But the turkey is all, "no!" and opens his wings a little. "You are in my bubble!" he declares.

The deer jumps back. "oh! oops! Sorry!" and walks around the turkey...

Turns out the deer is a mama! She's got two children with her!

They wander off down the hill before I can get a portrait of the whole family.

Next is a Turkey mama who also has two children!

And then I get into the forest. Of course there's some Song Sparrows!

And a surprising number of young Western Grey Squirrels.

You can tell they aren't quite adults yet because they don't run away at the first glimpse of a human! *laughs* The young ones are curious, but they soon learn that humans are not to be trusted.

Also, the young ones need to take naps! :)

The sweet potatoes are blooming...

Sweet Potatoes are native to the Americas and are related to Morning Glories!

I stopped to chat with my friend, Roz, who has a plot in the front of the Community Garden. He likes to talk photography, and had a photo project when he biked his way up and down the Pacific Coast. Wow, that's cool!

He's also passionate about a cover crop for our garden plots! He asked if I had gotten a bag of free Fava beans so I could plant my own cover crop. That email had gone out the other day, and I assumed all the bags were gone. but nope!! He went to the shed and pulled out a bag for me!

Awesome! I never have success direct seeding most stuff, but for free? Heck yeah, I'm willing to try again! The bag is a ziplock sandwich bag, and it's full, there's hundreds of beans in there!

And since I've kept the sprinklers going since I got back from the Utah holiday (on the timer, of course!) there's lots of damp dirt around the veges to plant the beans in!

Yeah. I'm trying not to have hope, because I've been disappointed sssooooooo mmaaaannnnyyy ttiiiiimmeees!

heh.

But I kinda have hope!

Well.

That used to be my one and only Spaghetti Squash.

And now it's food for a Banana Slug. ha!

Stupid Spaghetti Squash, anyway. How many did I plant? like eight? Yeah, I think it was eight... Vege starts, bought and paid for at Saturday Farmer's Market...

They all got munched to death by Spotted Cucumber Beetles, right after I planted them. I wish the bugs had just chewed on my dollar bills, instead, because jeez, putting all those baby plants into the dirt gave me so much hope.

The last two Spaghetti Squashes did live, but they were stunted. And I was very surprised to see that one of the plants had made a fruit.

And again with the hope! That I would eat a Spaghetti Squash this year!

But nope. Stupid Slug.

Well.

Here's something nicer to think about...

I just love this series of photos I took at my Community Garden!

And, dang! Isn't the sunshine, catching in these flowers just beautiful?!

hm, I don't know what kind of flowers they are.

I don't know what this tree is... but I kinda like the colour combination with the green leaves and the orange-tan-ish fruit thingees.

And when I got home from my very nice walk... My Significant Other decided he was going to fix his computer. I'm not really sure what was wrong with it, but I guess he's had trouble turning it on. I didn't want to deal with it.

So, of course, when he got done "fixing" it, the computer didn't turn on at all.

And, of course, he wants me to solve his stupid problem.

I start fiddling. And fortunately, I've got parts enough to basically rebuild his computer. I think his motherboard had a problem. And the other computer had a problem with the power box. Between the two of them...

I get the thing working, but I'm pretty annoyed that I have to waste my time on this thing when I told him from the beginning that I didn't want to deal with it.

There were over a million new covid cases in the US last week: 1,153,541 which is an average of 164,792 new cases every day.

2,028 people died every day.

There are 922 people with active covid in my town and 16 people have died in the past week. We are down to three available ICU beds. 77% of hospitalized people are unvaccinated (47 of 61).

So today I continued working on my partner's computer... and I managed to get all the working bits into one computer case! ha. Def not my idea of fun, so hopefully this patched up computer will stay working for a while.

This is the first Brandywine tomato, and the only one this big...

Brandywines are my very favorite tomatoes... but they are not very productive plants. I might get 5 or 6 tomatoes off one plant.

and this year, the plants were quite late in making any fruits. Mid-September is ridiculously late for a first tomato, with no others even close to ripening!

I should probably give up on the Brandywines... after all there are so many other kinds of tomatoes. I'm sure there are plenty out there that I will like and grow better!

The birds are happily eating sunflower seeds at the Community Garden!

On Tuesday, walking to the Community Garden on the bike path, I was very excited to see these construction signs! The path on the curve ahead is very broken and very dangerous. A large and deep crack runs thru the concrete, it's well over 100feet long and there's 3 or 4 inches of separation in places... def big enough for a bike tire to fall into. and then too, the slab on the creek side has fallen a little so there's also a cliff between the sides of the big crack.

Last year, they tried to fill the crack with tar. Which kinda helped. At least the crack wasn't so deep. But they didn't do a good job and the crack wasn't completely filled up.

So anyway, this section has been dangerous for a while. And I was glad they were going to work on it. But I was super disappointed when I got to the other side and saw they hadn't started working but did have their stupid tar machine out again. sheesh!

The next day when I came this way... nothing had been done. It looked the same. sighs.

But yesterday, the construction signs returned. And when I walked to the other end... oh my gosh! There are FOUR trucks and several guys milling about! I think the path is actually going to get fixed this time!!

Yep! and here's what it looks like today...

Yay! Black top to fill the crack and smooth out the cliffs! And sand thrown on top to keep the sticky down. So much better!

Those darn Cedar Waxwings... they pretend like they want their portrait taken, but it never works out!

This is the back right corner of the Garden plot...

On the left is the secondary Lemon Cucumber patch, the vines are starting to die off.

The yellow and orange flowers are Nasturtium. Last autumn, I forked and pulled weeds, and that disrupted the usual self seeding of the Nasturtiums. Only a couple little plants popped up this year. A bummer, maybe I'll plant more next year!

The main part of the photo is the Sweet Potato vines! Which are making me very happy right now, thinking about all the sweet potatoes I will dig up!

Hawthorn leaves and berries (pomes, actually, like apples!) are just so pretty!

And a lovely Green Heron.

The clouds are starting to break up, but there's still some pretty fog out on the hills...

I decided to walk the other way for once and wanted to go up to Stewart Pond. Ugh, what a disappointment!

The bike path under one of the bridges was flooded. Walking around that mess was complicated, since I could get up to the street on my side, but there wasn't a way back down to the path on the other side. sighs...

And then I finally get to the park. And there's several guys doing frisbee golf. And they also have their dogs off-leash.

It's happy dog time. But zero birds for me to take photos of. sighs!

*laughs* Yeah... Re-committing, yet again!

Sometimes I have trouble getting my words out. But I take photos every day! I have pictures to share every single day. That shouldn't be so hard, right?!

I know, I know. I keep saying I'm going to start blogging again, and then nothing ever happens!

I have no enthusiasm and I have no motivation! And I have dropped almost all my other creative projects, in the last few months.

I've been stagnant for so long... yeah, honestly, there's some rot!

How to get rid of the rot? I don't know. But I'm going to keep trying!

Wait... oh my gosh! There's a couple baby Fava plants coming up!!! I can't believe it!

The cover crop might actually happen this year.

Oh good, new covid cases are back under a million for this past week... There were 952,951 new covid cases, averaging 136,136 new cases every day.

On average 2,006 people died of covid every day.

There are 754 people with active covid in my town, and 10 people have died in the last week. Down to two available ICU beds today! 78.9% of the hospitalized people are un-vax'ed (60 of 76)

A young Steller Jay, at the garden. Jays and Crows are all in the Corvid family.

I saw a few crows swooping in the air and figured they were goofing off. I watched them ... and then saw the hawk! The crows weren't swooping for fun! They were mobbing the hawk!

This is a Red Tail Hawk. (And the tail-end of a crow!) These hawks are found across most of the US, all year. In the summer, they also spend nesting time up in Canada.

The crows weren't very serious about the mobbing. There's no nests or young to defend, this time of year. A couple crows wandered off and a couple more took their place.

Whoa....

So artsy! haha, I didn't photoshop this at all, that's just how it happened!

Well. Rocky start... I didn't type every day, even tho I did complete three blog posts yesterday. And I've not uploaded anything yet, because there are a bunch of holes that I'd like to fill, up above.

But! Stuff is happening here! So that's exciting. :)

Also exciting...

Look at all the Favas coming up!

and... a Woolly Bear!!

2nd one I've seen this season!

Ha... Honey Bees and Borage blossoms go so well together because they are both invasive from Europe! :)

And today is the beginning of Banned Books Week! Ah, my favorite time of year! *laughs*

From the 2020 Top 10 list I have read five! (and six from the 2019 list!)

Here are the banned books I've read this year...

∞ The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Harsh. And terrible. But I'm glad I got to read it.

∞ Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Yep, it's depressing. But surprisingly readable and def a page turner. I read it as fast as I could, just to get it over with.

The lovely colour of this rose attracted me... but had to aim the camera down, because rain drops on the lens is not cool! :)

Okay! More Banned Books!!!

Here's what I've read from the Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books: 2010-2019... 26 books!

1. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
3. Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
5. George by Alex Gino
6. And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
10. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
11. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
12. Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (via Audio at work!)
13. I Am Jazz by Jazz Jennings and Jessica Herthel
14. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
15. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (The perfect novel??!)
19 A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo by Jill Twiss (Bun-buns!! super cute!)
26. A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
27. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
29. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
30. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
33. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (read in school?)
45. Beloved by Toni Morrison
49. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
50. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
52. The Holy Bible (bits and pieces)
61. The Giver by Lois Lowry
62. Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (read in school!)
79. 1984 by George Orwell
82. Awakening by Kate Chopin (this was so boring... but I almost finished it?) (ha!)
84. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
88. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

These are Sunchoke blooms, or more commonly called Jerusalem Artichokes. Weird name, since they're not from Jerusalem and they are root vegetables, not artichokes!

I just love that photo! Still a layer of clouds from yesterdays rain, but the sun is just peaking thru. :)

And a Great Blue Heron, standing next to some awesome graffiti!

Again! Less than a million cases this week! 817,791 new covid cases in the US, averaging 116,827 every day.

Unfortunately 2,044 peole died everday and the US is on track for 700,000 dead in a day or two... we are currently at 693,261 dead, according to the Johns Hopkins dashboard.

There are still 748 active covid cases in my town ... the cases have been very slowly coming down from our peak on 16 Aug when we had 1182 active cases. 13 people died in the past week.

There are 95 people in the hospital with covid, mostly unvaxed, and I think this is the most we've ever had in the hospital... (hugs) to our nurses and medical people!

Goldfinches and a native House Finch, being happy at the Community Garden.

Some cheerful zinnias.

And look at the Favas growing as cover crop at our garden plot!

And another Woolly Bear caterpillar! Yay!

I am sad to see a few on the path, squished. I don't know why they want to walk down human paths! I grabbed a leaf, and this one walked up on it, and I took her off the path and set her down in the grass. I don't know if she'll find the perfect place to hibernate here, but I do want to give her a chance!

And Duck Stamps!

Unfortunately, the John Oliver clip from his show Last Week Tonight, is no longer available. But this Audubon article explains what John Oliver did, and I just think it's brilliant!!

∞ Check Out These Hilarious Entries in the New Duck Stamp Contest

And here are all the paintings that John Oliver commissioned...

∞ Last Week Tonight's Duck Stamp Art
Auctioned off for good money going to wetlands habitat and wildlife refuges.

I can't decide which one's my favorite... The Redhead hunting the hunter -- such a look of evil! -- or the Nintendo game, Duck Hunt -- just funny!

Next year, Trump's ridiculous and stupid Hunting Element requirement will no longer be a thing on Duck Stamps.

Beauty berry isn't native, but very striking.

Yay, another Woolly Bear!

Wow! Awesome pic of a Cross Orb Weaver.

Big Leaf Maple...