June 2022

Hey Mama! You want to show off your babies?

Yes! and she brings them out into the open. :)

So adorable! Thank you, Mama!

I'm working at the garden again today.

Again... I try to ignore the fact that I'm down to two Lemon Cucumbers of batch #2. sighs.

The project today... Weed this area...

And plant two Sweet Potato starts!

Sweet Potatoes are such beautiful plants!

And then walking home, I see this one again!

She's so sweet! And this is, what, the third time I've seen her in the past month or so? (yep... First sighting was may8, then again on may24.) Probably time to look up who she is! *laughs*

∞ Muscovy Duck at AllAboutBirds

huh, super interesting! They are from South America and are one of the oldest domesticated ducks, they were kept by the native people in Peru and Paraguay. The claws on their feet are used for perching in trees! I guess I'll have to look up every once in a while. I would love to see a duck in a tree!

Annnd... hmmm... Not sure if she's a girl or not! ha!

There's a major size difference, the males are much bigger. But we've got nobody to compare to, out here! I'm gonna keep calling her a her! :)

Oh, wow... how cool is this! Minnows!

Pretty, pretty Wood Sorrel...

On the walk back home, I stop off at the garden. Our new neighbors across the path offered us some potatoes the other day. And yep, there's a box in our plot with a bunch of sprouted potatoes! Cool.

But then I look around at the other stuff...

Oh HELL AND DAMNATION!

Those are Striped Cucumber Beetles. Eating up what used to be one of my squash plants.

ARG! Goodbye squash plants. It was nice knowing you... too bad I threw away all that money on you.

Fah.

Okay... this is kind of interesting!

I'm pretty sure this male Bluebird is holding a baby's poo sack! ha! Yuck! *laughs*

:) Some baby songbirds make poo sacks so that the parents can take them away easily. This not only keeps the nest clean, but extra poo around might alert predators to the location of the nest!

Nature is pretty amazing, huh?!

But that guy really should drop that thing somewhere... not just sit with it. I mean, I'm happy to get an interesting photo... but still!

Cucumber Beetles are in the process of murdering ALL the squash plants. There were seven, all different kinds of summer squash, that had survived the cold and wet. And now it looks like there will be none.

WAI!

I am so sad and frustrated. I just can't make the garden work this year.

But... I have chores to do, so I can't mope and whine about the damn squashes.

I had run into our new plot neighbors, across the pathway, a couple times... Emily, Lee, and their kid who has an interesting name that I never remember! And they awesomely gave us some seed potatoes! (Dang, that's a lot!)

I've not grown regular potatoes before, altho I have dug up a few volunteers from Evil Neighbor's overflowing compost area!

So I'm eager to get these going... It might be the one thing that I CAN grow this year! ha.

So, here's where I want to put them. I get out my hand fork and start weeding!

On the left is the big happy Comfrey plant, making the Honey Bees happy. and one of the Sweet Potatoes. In the weedy area, there's a couple surviving Favas and some of last year's Beets which are going to seed. I'll keep some of them!

Weed, weed, weed... and dig holes, and more holes... and plant potatoes!

Okay! You can Grow now!

I also planted a couple basil plants. That was an impulse buy from the Farmers Market... I usually can't keep basil alive, but hope springs eternal, huh.

And a third Sun Gold... because the 1st Sun Gold was sun burned almost to death, and the 2nd Sun Gold isn't really doing well.

Pretty Pinks.

Who's this?

Oh, of course... the female House Sparrow, who was using one of the Bluebird nesting boxes at the Garden. I didn't realize the females looked so very different from the males!

And here's her scruffy baby. :)

She's sweet, I like her!

oh! haha! so silly! run! Catch up with Mama!

Oh my gosh... A Robin is building a nest!!!

She is very very nervous about me looking at her. Ha! I tell her, she's the one who decided to build a nest a few feet over the path!

But I am respectful, of course. I take a few pics, wipe the raindrops off the lens with my shirt, and move on.

Dignified Fledgling? or maybe a female...

And then you show your true colours! a begging baby! Bahaha!

House Sparrows are invasive, but pretty cute, after all. :)

There's an apple tree outside the garden...

Herb Robert is invasive, but this patch next to the path is so striking.

xxx

It's 100% rain today and I really really do not want to bother with the stupid garden.

So I'm out to the river. I want to check out the Osprey nest... Looks like a parent is standing up there! But I don't see anybody else, not even a lump. foo.

Then coming back thru the Rose Garden!

This one is new this year, and is an instant favorite.
Twilight Zone!

*laughs* I'm such a sucker for the roses!

Oh my gosh! This Bushtit was yelling at a Scrub Jay... I think the Jay was just way too close to Mr Bushtit's nest. The nest was hidden, I didn't see it, but it was obviously buried in some nearby shrubbery, just outside the Rose Garden fence!

Oh, I wish this portrait came out better! Fish are so cool! My Dad says this is a carp.

Dang it... there was a Swallow going in and out of the bigger hole in this snag. She was too fast for me, tho, and I didn't get her picture. Foo.

Such a long tail... has to be a Cooper Hawk?

Yep, a juvenile!

Oh, I just love the background, too!

Duck! Haha, they're being mobbed by Swallows!

Oh, cool bug! This is a Lady Bug larva sitting in a Garden Pink.

Oh, Dang it you Robin! Look at that amazing background with all those interesting colours. This would have been a beautiful picture, if only you were agreeable!! *laughs*

Been a while since I've gotten to take a pic of our native Western Grey Squirrel! It's not that I don't see them... it's more that they don't stick around for portraiture! :)

I come around the corner, from the forest back into a neighborhood... and we surprise each other!

I say hello, and he's such a sweet gentleman, he replies with his gentle voice. We have a good conversation!

Oh, here comes another one!

He doesn't have as much to say as my friend. That's okay!

I walk on, and then happen to turn around and look back...

oh, ha! Just sprawled out in someone's back yard.

He was singing a good song... but oh! I wonder if his beak gives him trouble.

We start with a pink flower, and we end with some pink flowers! :)

I hate the garden.

There were seven Summer Squash plants that lived thru the slugs and the cold and wet. The Striped Cucumber Beetles are eating them all up.

Well.

I planted some Leeks today. There aren't any bugs who eat leeks, so at least I'll get some soup flavoring out of the garden this year.

sighs.

I am ignoring the dying squash plants today.

Let the weeding begin...

I planted some Wax Bean seeds here.

Ha, so funny thing.

Last year I had grown Wax Beans for the first time ever. The little bean patch did well, and I wanted to do that again this year.

So I picked out some seeds to plant at my favorite local nursery. They sat in my cart for a few days because I didn't want to just buy beans, you know. I picked out a few other seeds to get.

But then, the nursery had a sale to get rid of the last few seed packets of the year! And so I switched from the Wax Beans that I had so carefully picked out, to some of these Wax Beans that were on sale.

When they arrived, I realized my mistake. I had wanted bush beans, which are short and will stand up on their own.

The sale beans were pole beans. They'll be 8 or 10 feet tall... And I simply do not have a trellis that big!!

*laughs*

Yay, a new dragonfly!

I love going thru my book to learn about dragonflies and damselflies! This one is a male Pacific Clubtail...

Oh wow! This is a Western Tiger Swallowtail. And they hardly ever sit down!

But this one was really happy about the Blackberry blooms!

So Lovely! They are one of our native species. Wing span about 3 inches.

And off we go! Thank you!

xxx ... more pics here!

Rain started yesterday and still raining today... It's just unheard of that it rains this late in the year! But it makes some of us happy...

The rain has driven away the Striped Cucumber Beetles. They'll be back, but it hardly matters... we won't be able to bounce back from this...

So a bunch of new plants from the Farmers Market populate the porch room. But when can I plant them to avoid death by Cucumber Beetle? I don't know.

I mentioned the Cucumber Beetles to my farmer and she starts, There are some organic pesticides...

I shake my head, I'm vegan. I don't want to kill anybody.

But it's more than that. Bugs are so very very important in our world... and we've been killing them at such a rate that we have to contemplate pollinating our crops with our own hand. Life without bugs is going to be near impossible, but that's where we are headed.

And I refuse to add to the problem just because I'm annoyed at what's happening in my own garden. I will never use pesticides or any other poison.

Still with the rain that started on the 10th! Yay!

I walked in the rain but didn't take many photos.

So here's a piggy for you instead!

Dawn the Guinea Pig!

Cloudy, but just a couple sprinkles today.

This is someone's yard, officially designated as a Pollinator Habitat! I love to watch and see how it changes thru the year!

I don't know why people have Sweet Peas in their garden plot... Sweet Pea is poisonous! Not to mention really invasive.

Oh my gosh, what an amazing splash of colour!

Let's see... the pink and white flowers are Garden Pinks, the orange is Calendula, and the blues are Bachelor Buttons...

Hang on... we've got a photo bomber...

*laughs*

And then on the way home. Oh sheesh... you gotta stand right next to some trash?!

okay, that's better. Thanks!

The grand opening for Eugene's newest park took place over the weekend, and I'm excited to go and see it!

∞ Eugene Downtown Riverfront Park

And, of course! It's raining off and on again today. ha. The weather this spring is just insane!

I park at the Rose Garden, the new park is a bit over a mile upriver.

But you can't walk thru the Rose Garden without taking photos of roses!!

This Silver Lining is one of my favorites. Such a unique shade!

And the new Twilight Zone now has an official tag labeling it... so I guess it's a keeper! :)

And I pass by the Osprey nest that's on the other side of the river... hmm. A parent and two lumps?

And here we are at the new park...

The crowning glory (right now, there's more art on the way) is this amazing art pavilion. It's called SubSupra and the metal ribbons mimic the topography of the riverbed...

The stainless steel is polished to a mirror shine! *laughs* How fun is that!

The bike path splits into several parallel paths. I suppose the outside one is for bikers who just want to ride thru. There's a boardwalk right next to the river and extra benches and seating for people who just want to hang out.

The building in the background is the old EWEB Steam Plant. It took water from the river and heated the entire downtown, back in the day. But it's been abandoned for a long time. The plan is to develop it and put in restaurants and gift shops! This place will be amazing when that happens!

The next walking bridge is another mile upriver... I think I'll go check that out!

Two miles from the Rose Garden, and huh... I didn't realize the path was so close to the University. Not sure how many blocks away it is, and you do have to cross a major road. I will have to check that out another time!!

And here I am on Autzen walking bridge looking upriver. Interstate 5 is over there somewhere, but there's another walking bridge just before it.

That was my turn around spot today... I'm heading back. I'll put the rest of the wildlife in today's Part 2 post!

This was the only sign of wildlife at the new park today. An intrepid Eastern Fox Squirrel...

Maybe once things calm down, more wildlife will come visiting.

Back in the old park, there's some happy creatures. This is one of our native squirrels, a Western Grey.

Happy Robin. Poor little worm.

Whoa! Swallows that worm almost instantly!

And now we're looking for the next worm!

And back at the Osprey nest. Looks like two children, still... two lumps of heads...

Two beaks...

Ooooh! Nope! That's Three! Two heads and a body behind the parent!

Check! Three babies and a parent! Awesome!

I have finally decided what to do with all the millions of Squash and Lemon Cucumber plants that are sitting in the porch room at home!

Okay. It's not millions. There are 8 Lemon Cucs, 2 Spaghetti Squash, and a couple of Zucchinis. But when you have to water them all twice a day, it seems like millions! :)

The Cucumber Beetles don't seems quite as multitudinous now. But that's just because they've eaten most everything. If I plant some new baby squashes in the garden, I'm sure they'll be back to eat everything yet again.

So I've got some row covers. When I pulled out the package that was leftover from a couple years ago, I realized the sheet I'd gotten was pretty small. Only 10x12 feet. I figured if I cut it in half, I could separate the baby plants into two rows with 4 Lemon Cucs and 1 Spaghetti Squash in each. And I'll worry about the Zucs later.

But the place I had in mind for the Cucs has some weeds encroaching. So that's what I'm going to work on today.

Here's the front right of our garden plot...

The black circle is part of a patch of Mammoth Clover... which was our cover crop from two seasons ago. I am happy that it still hangs around, it's good for the garden and I like diversity! But I'm going to cut some of it down to make room for the row cover.

The red oval is some invasive Creeping Buttercup. It has gotten established in the pathway and has set roots in the plot. It just needs to go. And I'll dig it out of the pathway, as much as I can as well. (They were very healthy plants... I pulled up several runners that were over 5 feet / 1.5 meters long!)

Yay! A good space for one of the row covers! Plus there's some breathing room for a couple volunteer Elephant Garlics that are growing in the Clover patch.

The Creeping Buttercup that I pulled out will go to the Community Garden compost heap. But the clover I cut down will stay in the plot. I just dumped it in the Mostly Dead Squash patch. The nutrients and biomass can return to the dirt... with the rain we've been getting, it'll break down quickly.

Okay. This is more than a pet peeve, and more than an annoyance.

This is something that makes me angry. I am pissed off about this!

This is the back porch of a neighborhood townhouse... I'm sure some Proud Boy Patriots are living here. You can tell by their extreme ignorance. They've got some kind of tent frame around their porch.

And they are using a huge American flag as... what? a privacy curtain?

THE FLAG IS DRAGGING ON THE GROUND!

Let me repeat.

The American flag is dragging on the ground!

ARG! ARG! ARG!

Having a flag even touch the ground briefly is not good, but leaving it to drag in the dirt 24/7 is the height of disrespect.

I am almost tempted to print up the Flag Code and drop it off at their front door. hmmm. Or. Here's a decent graphic, The American Flag at USA.gov.

And, having said all that... if you are at a protest and you feel the need to burn an American flag in order to make your statement? Yep. Go right ahead! Have at it!

Burning a flag in protest is part of our First Amendment rights. It is freedom of speech.

And yep, I am one of those people who take this to heart...

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.
(not Voltaire)

Altho, I rather like this rendering better...

I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself.
Oscar Wilde

*laughs*

Planted the Lemon Cucumbers and a Spaghetti Squash, and the first row cover is ready to be pulled over!

And here's the reason for the row covers...

Sure enough, the Cucumber Beetles are coming out again now that the rain has stopped and things are drying out.

Damn you to hell, little bug!

Okay. All covered up!

To the right of the row cover are some baby Leeks. That's my backpack, leaning against one of Evil Neighbor's raised beds... he hasn't started gardening yet this year, so his beds are just full of grass that's approaching a meter tall. I hope he doesn't come back. Because. You know. He's Evil.

In the middle, there are several volunteer Elephant Garlics, in front of the big patch of Mammoth Clover. ha, elephants and mammoths! :)

and the green on the left is another, smaller patch of Mammoth Clover. You can't really see it but there's a couple tomato plants, in front of and between the two clovers.

I've got several Sun Gold cherry tomato plants. An heirloom Yellow Pear tomato, a Roma Tomato, and a full size tomato called Celebrity. I don't know about the Celebrity... I just realized one day at the Farmers Market that I didn't have any big tomatoes, so I just grabbed that one.

And no Brandywines for the first time in years. I LOVE Brandywines. But the plants are not very productive... only five or ten tomatoes grow on a single plant. They just need a longer season, maybe, and that's not going to happen this year with the cold and wet spring we've had. sighs. maybe next year.

The Opium Poppies in the garden plot behind ours, are blooming!

They are so pretty, I love all the different colours!

The European Honey Bees love the Poppies as well.

The rain is back again today, so the garden is back on pause. I'm out to Stewart Pond, to check on the nesting Robin!

On the way, a walk thru the neighborhoods...

And here we are. The wet prairie winter pond is turning into a summertime prairie... and oh my gosh, I just love the different greens of all the grasses!!

It's pouring rain now!

It's rained so much, there's still a pond in the forest! crazy!

And here's our beautiful nesting Robin. *laughs* She sits!

Oh, hey!

A little flock of Bushtits!!

Ha! They're all over the place!

Female Bushtits have pale eyes, other than that they look the same as the males.

Another day of rain! And I want to look at the new park again! I park at the Rose Garden...

A parent at the Osprey nest.

And other people are building their nests!

And then it starts Pouring down rain as soon as I get to the new park! ha!

A different view of the SubSubpra art pavilion.

The art continues with bands of metal in the sidewalks.

The abandoned Steam plant. That building definitely has some character!

I'm not walking all the way to the next bridge today.

I turn around and go back the way I came.

Under the Defazio walking bridge... ha! I didn't realize you could see the Sun from here! (that yellow ball on the right.)

The bike path includes an art installation of a scale Solar System. The Sun and inner planets are in Alton Baker park, and the outer planets are along the Ruth Bascom Riverbank trail. Pluto is a tiny dot, over 3.5 miles away!

It's really cool and I love it! :)

And of course the rain quits after I come out of the new park. ha.

But I get to see one of the kids at the Osprey nest... (and the photo is a little better with some sun shining down!)

Happy Juneteenth!

I went to the Post Office today and picked up my order of postcards! I'm very excited and plus they put my box in Parcel Locker Number ONE! *laughs*

∞ Postcards to Swing States

I'm a little bit disappointed by the boring design on the postcards I got... The picture on the website is way better!

So anyway! I've got 500 postcards that need to be sent on 10 October.

Let's do the math... if I start writing tomorrow, that will be 16 weeks to the deadline. I will have to write 31.25 postcards per week, which is 6.25 postcards written five days a week (so I can take time off on the weekend) (or catch up if I need to!).

A significant daily effort, for a long period of time!

I think I can do it! Yeah!!

And some puttering around the garden...

I had planted some Wax Bean seeds, directly into the ground a couple weeks ago. I never do this because seeds just don't do anything in the garden plot. But they are actually starting to come up!

Yeah, the baby bean leaves have holes in them. And a couple are munched down to the stem. Slugs.

And only a few Sugar Snap Pea plants survived the slugs this spring... but the couple of snap peas that I've eaten have been SOOOO good!

Dang it, I wish I had planted more snap peas, I just can't survive on three or four peas a week! *laughs*

Looks like the Lemon Cucumbers are doing okay under the row cover. That's good!

The bottom leaves off ALL the tomato plants are getting yellow! Ack!

When I talked to my Mom, she said Too Much Water.

So that's just great. It's raining so much, it's starting to kill my tomato plants.

The Squash plants are already dead of cold and slugs and Cucumber Beetles. and now the tomato plants. Am I going to get ANY vegetables this year???

Wai!! Hopeless Despair!

Well. At least the bees are happy in the plot behind.

And the Garden Pinks in another neighboring plot are pretty.

But still. Hopeless Despair!

Cool artwork someone has chalked on the bike path!

I just can't get over how beautiful the grass is...

ha! A Swallow and a Vulture!

Oh wow!

What the...? A Red Tail Hawk... with a red tail! Ha! That's weird!

um, I am NOT being sarcastic about the red tail! All the Red Tail Hawks I've seen here have brown tails, the same colour as their body. Definitely not red. I assumed it was a regional difference. but now I wonder if I've only been seeing juveniles? That seems... statistically unlikely.

Still a pond in the forest.

And the Robin still sits.

oh, lovely! A Twelve Spotted Skimmer.

ha, do they see each other???

A couple of articles I want to share with you today.

∞ River Trash traps chew at huge ocean plastics problem

I love this! Turning Trash Traps into big, cute and lovable characters is fun!

Mr Trash Wheel has his own website, and there are a couple other Trash Traps in his family. They run on a water wheel or solar power!

I support Abortion Access Front, and they support independent abortion clinics. The newsletter I got today highlights a clinic in a city that spans the border between Tennessee and Virginia. The clinic needs to move to the Virginia side of the town...

∞ Go Fund Me, Keep Abortion Safe and Legal in Bristol
they are at $37,753 and looking to get 75K.
(update... They hit their original target, but had to raise it to 125,000$ due to unanticipated expenses.)

I suppose that many abortion clinics will be doing this... moving out of state so they can keep going.

It just infuriates me that we have to do this.

This clinic is just moving across town, but many will have to move hundreds of miles away.

And their patients? Where will they go for their reproductive health care? These clinics provide more than just abortion care, you know. Where will people go every three months for their Depo shot or birth control pills? Pap smears are incredibly important, and absolutely saves lives! How are we going to get that done, when we don't have a regular doctor?

Okay. Day two of Sunshine. So I'm back at the Community Garden plot to do some work!

Each garden plot gets it's own water tap, and there's pipes coming up in the corner where four plots meet. No one weeds around our taps, and there's some Creeping Buttercup that's starting to take over. So that's where I start.

I forgot to take a Before pic, so here is the After pic with the pile of weeds I've dug up...

The back left plot is showing Horseradish, which is invasive at our garden. You can eat it, and it is healthy... but I hate it! *laughs* I chop it down where ever it appears in my plot, it's easy to identify, but impossible to get rid of permanently!

And the back right plot is Opium Poppies. They are beautiful and I love taking photos of them and the European Honey Bees. I am sad that they have yet to self seed into my plot.

Next up... need to make room for the 2nd row cover! Here's the spot, I'm going to break up the soil and pull out grass roots.

The long sticks are last year's Sunflowers, dried up and maybe useful for marking areas! And to the left of the sticks are a couple of surviving Fava, the winter cover crop. And on the right is the back of the Mammoth Clover patch.

A good square done! But not quite big enough for the row cover... I'll have to finish it tomorrow.

You can't really see it, but there's a lone, mostly dead Spaghetti Squash in the middle of that square. I was going to pull it up, it's not going to do anything after being ravaged by the Cucumber Beetles. But the poor thing... I just couldn't kill it. I weeded around it and will put it under the row cover with the Lemon Cucumbers!

Okay. Let's go have fun...

Oh, yay, a new dragonfly to look up! This one took me a while to find in my book. But I learned stuff as I searched! Skimmers have a fat body type, and Clubtails of course are fatter at the end of their tail, so I had narrowed this one down to a Darner...

I had to double check with some pictures online, but I finally figured out she's a California Darner!

Something woke me up at 4am.

It's still dark, but the Morning Chorus has already begun, if you call one bird... unidentified and non-melodious, singing a tapping sound... a Chorus! *laughs*

But then I heard what must have woken me up...

A Screech Owl!

TWO!

They are talking over each other for a couple rounds!

Screech Owls have the most amazing song, called a bouncing ball song! Here it is, go check it out!

∞ Western Screech Owl Sounds at AllAboutBirds.

So cool! The second owl didn't sing for long, but the first kept going for a couple minutes. I noticed the time... After I woke, they started at 4:06am and they were done at 4:09am.

Day Three of Sunshine... and the tomato plants are definitely starting to perk up! Yay!

I finish weeding the section I started yesterday, for the row cover...

The Wax Beans are still alive, but really getting munched by the slugs.

And the slugs have bitten into all of the Strawberries, so far. But I'm still glad I planted them, they are pretty, little plants!

Day Four of Sunshine!

Okay! Finally ready to transplant the rest of the Lemon Cucumbers! They've been sitting in the porch room at home, languishing but avoiding the evil Cucumber Beetles!

And all covered up...

The first batch of kinda slug-munched Wax Beans were planted two weeks ago. Since they actually grew, I decided to add a few more seeds to the bean patch!

There's a green Zucchini plant next to the beans... it was eaten up by the Cucumber Beetles, but it's acting like it wants to live!

And there are four plants left in the squash patch which are Technically still alive, after being mostly munched to death by the Cucumber Beetles. I think it's two Crook Necks and two Spaghetti Squash. I'm not sure because I planted a bunch of different squashes here but then I gave up on them when they got decimated by the bugs! Most were just eaten to death, but if they had partial leaves left, I didn't pull them out. I guess we'll see if the survivors will do anything.

Oh! Is this a potato? It's the first one to come up! Yay!

Oh pretty damselfly! and an awesome name... Vivid Dancer!

Damselflies hold their wings over their backs, and are usually smaller. Dragonflies hold their wings out...

A dragonfly with a boring name... Pacific Clubtail.

Dang it, little bird!

Couple more Sugar Snap Peas to eat. They are so good!

In the past, the Love in a Mist self-seeded itself all over the place. But I must have layered the winter mulch too thick, and hardly any have come up this year. foo.

The End of Roe v Wade

∞ Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade; states can ban abortion at AP News

∞ Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Org (Direct link to the PDF of SCOTUS opinion.)

And so it begins. The Supreme Court has started taking away rights. and it's the end of the United States.

So. Women and people with uteruses no longer have a federal right to bodily autonomy. Without bodily autonomy, our other rights are useless. We have become 2nd class citizens.

We will die. Pregnancy complications will disable us. There will be more unwanted children. They apparently can't understand the tragedy of this.

No mention of the men in this mathematical equation, of course. weird, huh?

With the fall of the right to privacy, a lot of other human rights will fall as well. It sounds like Justice Clarence Thomas is all about ending those rights... He writes in his concurring opinion that the SCOTUS should reconsider Griswold (contraception), Lawrence (gay sex), and Obergefell (same-sex marriage).

And why isn't Loving v. Virginia (interracial marriage) in that list? hmmm? (Justice Thomas is a Black man married to a white woman.) Loving is also classified as a substantive due process case in the exact same way as those other rulings.

Sighs.

You know that feeling when you're driving to the beach, for the first time in forever... and you first glimpse the ocean, out past the dunes? So blue. So amazing.

Or when you're driving west on I-70 thru Kansas, and you think you almost see the mountains... but maybe that's just clouds?

When I get out to the river, and I first see the water shining thru the trees... oh my! The weight of everyday life is lifted and there's a sigh of relief.

I belong here. This is my happy place.

The Rose Garden is lovely.

Oh my gosh! I thought I was taking a pic of a bug... it turns out, I was taking a pic of a bug being eaten up by a camouflaged spider!!! WOW!

This new mural is amazing!

Still water coming over the spillover from the river into the ponds! Usually this would dry up by April or May, it's unbelievable the river is still high enough now, at the end of June!

Good to see some older ducklings at the ponds... Avian Flu has killed almost all the babies this spring. Ducklings and goslings. There were four children in this family.

Hey, Cool!

Hops on over to the next tree!

So goofy! This must be a fledgling, out practicing their flying and landing skills.

And off we go.

Turtles! These are all invasive Red Ear Sliders. But look at the little one trying to get on board! haha, you are little, but there's no room for you, kid!

Carps!

Aww! Look at their precious face!

Wow. What an awesome walk today!

It's hot, and the Lemon Cucumbers under the front row cover look wilted. So I'm going to remove that row cover. It's probably a mistake. There's still Striped Cucumber Beetles about.

I transplanted this Zucchini a couple days ago, and look. It's munched already. Sighs.

I don't know why I keep hoping for good things to happen. I should face facts and understand that I'm not going to eat any Zucchini from the garden.

Sighs.

Here's Mama Bluebird.

And here's the lovely Muscovy girl.

The news over the weekend, in response to the fall of Roe v. Wade is just devastating.

And the one thing I keep hearing over and over is that we need to get out and vote. ARG! This is so annoying and it's all but insulting!

Supreme Court Justices do not get voted in. And, we actually did NOT vote for the presidents who installed those Justices... Those presidents all lost the popular vote.

So, yes, blah blah, voting is important. But a lack of voting did not get us here. And voting harder is not going to get us out of here.

Heading out to check on the nesting Robin at Stewart Pond.

Dang it! The amazing Lazuli Buntings are always too far away for photography.

The prairie is beautiful.

I think the pink flowers are a species of Checker Mallow.

The pond in the forest has finally dried up.

And here we are at the Robin's nest...

She still sits? Surely she has babies by now! Don't you need to get up and feed your babies??

I walk around, trying to get a different view. oh... haha! :)

*laughs* not a very dignified pic of Mama Robin... but this is what she gives me to work with!

Another SCOTUS Disaster

There's this thing in the US Constitution called the Establishment Clause.

... You know what? I can't do this today. The separation of Church and State is very very important to me and to our democracy, and I just can't do this today.

Things are really getting hopeless around here.

Okay. Today I am weeding at the garden, to make room for the rest of the stupid baby plants that are still sitting in the porch room at home.

Here is the Before photo...

This is the row cover over the secondary Lemon Cucumber patch, which I planted on jun23. And near the center, is a mostly dead Squash plant.

And the After photo...

That was a lot of work... There were so many grass roots in that little area.

Aw, look at the cute little potato plants coming up.

And, hey... The Wax Beans might grow faster than they can be munched?

Yesterday I didn't have my words... I was too mad to articulate! So. Let's have another go at the Establishment Clause!

The Establishment Clause is part of the First Amendment of the Constitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...

The courts have taken the no law respecting bit to mean (in part) that a government official cannot endorse a religion. And, specific to what I'm talking about today, a teacher in a public school... who is paid by the state and therefore a government employee... cannot conduct religious exercises publicly, in their capacity as a teacher.

So. This high school coach, who is praying in the middle of the field... publicly, loudly. And not necessarily forcing students to participate, but there is def an implied message to the football players... Pray or don't play.

And the Supreme Court, again going against however many years of precedent, ruled FOR this jerk of a football coach.

Yeah. And let's just follow the logic here. Promoting Christian prayer in public, good good good! But... What if I'm a Satanist, and I want to pray in the middle of the damn field! (ha! Damning the field in the meantime!!! ;)

uh huh. That is NOT gonna fly.

How about a Muslim? A Jewish person? Nope. None of this! There's only one type who's going to be allowed to publicly pray in a school setting, or on the high school football field.

Just one religion.

Separation of Church and State? Dead and Dying.
America the theocracy? Just made a giant leap forward.

∞ Kennedy v Bremerton School Dist direct link to PDF of the opinion.

∞ SCOTUS: School Prayer Awesome, Establishment Clause For Decorative Purposes Only
A good write up about the decision.

Okay! The last of the planting today! I've got two Zucchinis, which I'll put under row covers. And I've got 6 Giant Marigolds, an impulse buy at the Farmers Market.

Yay! Planting done! Grow, Garden! Grow!

The second row of Wax Beans is coming up! They are so cute, when they are not munched by slugs!

Unfortunately, the Primary Lemon Cucumber patch, which I uncovered at the beginning of the week, is not doing great. The Cucs are still a bit droopy and the Cucumber Beetles are eating the Spaghetti Squash leaves. Gah.

Well, that's my own fault for removing the row cover too early.

Bluebird is a bit scruffy looking! I wonder if he's getting tired of taking care of those babies!