2026

Some lovely rain last night, tho the clouds were breaking up when I woke up this morning. But it was just the next rain clouds moving in, and it gets dark and dreary again soon!

But the sun was shining by the time I got out the door. And at 53°, heading towards 61°, it's really too warm for the rain jacket. It quickly turns into a sauna as I walk.

Ha, this is cute... tho I've never considered Opossums fluffy like this!

Oh you Bewick Wrens. Such trouble makers! *laughs*

Across the street is a park with a Frisbee Golf course. I rarely visit, but it's good to walk a different way!

And, yep. I've decided to participate in LetterMo this year, to send mail every day.

I do send mail most days, thru the year. I'll just have to be a little more organized to send something every day!

And I hope to meet some people there to send mail to, as well!

The letter I'm working on today is my usual for Sunday afternoons... the weekly TGIF Notecard swap that I host at Swap-Bot. I really enjoy writing these Sunday letters, and I've been hosting that swap for ages!

oh ugh! There's another stupid Air Stagnation Advisory on the weather page. Starting tonight and going thru the week.

Bleh. It's troubling because we are way behind on the rain, and it's guaranteed not to rain with the Air Stagnation thing.

Normal rain for January is 6.05 inches and we only got 2.29 inches. That's bad, and we were behind for December and November as well.

Sighs. But Look!

The Wood Ducks are back! Yay!

oh, haha!

Just tryin' to get a drink of water? okay!

I just love the colours on this stray kitty. Tuxedo Siamese? Colour Point Tuxedo?

Yellow Rump Warbler. Or, more affectionately: Butter Butt. :)

That's the eastern race, Myrtle. Our western race, Audubon, has a yellow throat. I think they get all mixed up about where they want to spend the winter! So I see a bunch of the eastern Myrtles here.

Ha! With the Spider web!

I'm on my way back, and Nice! The Wood Ducks are still here!

WooHoo! Today I have finally finished sorting my December photos!

I've been working on them, slowly but surely, since I got back. Sometimes just 20 or 30 photos at a time. Just whenever I had an extra 10 minutes or so.

I was down to the last 160 photos, and I just JAMMED thru all of them! Finally done!

and good timing too. Now when I've got a bit of extra time, I can spend it on organizing for the Month of Letters!!

I've got letters to write, all this week. Today's letter is going down to California.

It's been a week since I've been at the garden for my volunteer work, and I'm happy to get back to it.

I've had some time to think about this big clump of Lesser Celandine...

And I've decided to get a fork from the tool shed to dig them out.

It works great! But only because it's been so dry.

Normally, I'm digging thru watery mud. Now that I'm picking out individual plants and brushing off soil and worms, it's more time consuming... But it also feels like I'm making a real difference! I Know I'm getting all the evil root nodes, here.

When I'm done with this clump, it is NOT going to come back!

I worked for a half hour today. Ordinarily, I would fill the trash bag with mud in about ten minutes, and would have to quit because I can only carry so much.

So half an hour at a time is great for the required four hours... I've done 3 hours already!

But I'm on a mission, now. I don't know how much time it will take to finish going all the way around this plot, but I'm going to do it. And then the back of that Plot 15 that I started last year, I def want to dig that out.

If this dry weather holds, I need to make the most of it!

I clean off the fork I used and return it to the shed. And then I do my little walk around the block before heading home.

Oh the Crocuses popping up in this yard!

Getting home, I'm about to go up the steps... but look who's sprawled at the top.

hahah!

Newspaper today said we are at 30% snowpack, only slightly better than 2015, the worst on record.

It's been a fairly warm winter, even melting the bit of snow we've gotten in the hills. And the lack of rain is pretty terrible.

Let's do some math... Our water year starts in October...

Normal Oct rain = 3.17inches. We got 2.62inches.
      That's 0.55 inches behind.
Normal Nov rain = 5.98in. We got 3.47in.
      Total behind is 3.06 inches.
Normal Dec rain = 7.21in. We got 5.51in.
      Total behind is 4.76 inches.
Normal Jan rain = 6.05in. We got 2.29in.
      Total behind is 8.52 inches.

Eight and a half inches behind on rain! That is a LOT of water we didn't get!

There is snow in the forecast for the mountains this weekend. Maybe a lot.

But we've still got our Air Stagnation Advisory, and there's no way that a 30% chance of rain on Saturday is going to help much of anything.

Bah, climate change. And even more unfortunate is the regime who wants to make things worse. *shakes fist at the sky*

Murdering Lesser Celandine at plot 38 again.

oh yeah!

And then a quick check on Plot 15, which I had started on last year. yeah...

The Lesser Celandine is pretty thick here.

It really is pretty tho. Too bad it's evil!

I'm out and walking a different neighborhood street for my loop around the block before going home. And here's another yard with Crocuses!

I wasn't sure how the shadows from the nearby trees would work out in the pics... but I really like the 'stage lighting' here and there!

Okay. Stop obsessing over the Crocuses. Because Look, there's some Daffodils to obsess over as well!

That's a Hoverfly, a Bee look-alike. And I'm all, Yes, you are very cute, but could I get a photo without a bug, please?

I snapped exactly one shot, and then the Hoverfly buzzes over to this flower as well. HAHA!

The heavy fog of this morning is clearing as I'm heading out to the garden. It's another sunny day and the Air Stagnation Advisory goes thru tomorrow night. And then we'll have warmer nights and possible rain. Desperately needed.

At the Community Garden, I've done my half hour of volunteer work, murdering Lesser Celandines!

And I'm done with the west border of Plot 38!

There's quite a bit of Lesser Celandine growing in the grass of the pathway. Ugh. That's going to be a serious pain to get out. But that's for another day.

I'm walking around the block, and this weird happening catches my eye...

House Finches... Zoned out while sunning!

A couple facing the fence, and the rest in weird positions.

But it's perfectly normal, they're just catching some rays!

They are pretty far from the bike path, and I don't want to disturb them by getting closer. Sunning is important for feather maintenance and I want everyone to have the best feathers! :)

The Poison Hemlock is starting to grow and take over a section between the bike path and the creek.

It's very poisonous, but the leaves are so pretty!

So this is amusing to me...

∞ Eugene riots cause $200k damage; federal building remains closed

uh huh. $200,000. You think that's correct for a couple broken windows?

Where is DOGE when you need them??! Because this is some Actual government fraud happening right in front of us!!

And let's talk about this other flat-out, blatant lie...

On Friday night, 400 rioters stormed the ICE Eugene building destroying windows and did over $200,000 worth of damage to the facility, said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

400 stormed the ICE building. That's fucking hilarious!!

Four hundred people were there, peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights. There were just a handful of people banging on the windows. In fact, the FBI is looking for exactly THREE people.

So. Three people get bumped up to '400 rioters'... you think the $200,000 got inflated in the same way?

Yeah. Stupid assholes.

Ha! That unseen Beaver!

There's so little water in the creek, it looks like summer. I stop to admire the sun playing on the rocks.

We've got rain in the forecast for the weekend... but that's it. By Tuesday and Wednesday we are back to sunny skies. So that's not going to help very much.

*laughs* Couldn't be bothered to take down the Halloween decorations...

... and now we can't be bothered to take down the Holiday decorations!!

Hmm. This is the tree with a woodpecker hole in it. It got taken over by Starlings last year, but this pair of Flickers seem to be checking it out.

That's the male, the female is further up and doesn't come around for photography.

But the Starlings are here as well... hanging back in the next tree, watching. Flickers are bigger than Starlings, but I can't imagine them fighting over an old nesting hole.

And the littlest Nutria. She must be a runt, she hasn't grown like the others.

Last night YouTube served me up some AI videos, without informing me. And I was thinking about them ALL night long!

The first one was a little bit longer and I had to stop it when the shouting began, it was stressing me out!

The second one was shorter, and I happened to watch all of it, but it was giving me the same vibes... with the outrage and the shouting.

And that's the thing that tipped me off... there was a lot of oddness in the story, but here's the thing that finally got thru and made me realize it was an AI video...

Shouting _Directly_ at the camera.

That just doesn't happen in real life. The camera is off to the side. If people see they are being recorded, they are going to react to that... they do NOT look directly into the cam and keep shouting!

Definitely an AI video.

Yuck. Plus, I don't like people shouting at me! heh. and I had closed the tab in disgust when I was done.

But I kept thinking about it and I went back to look for more information. And this was in the blurb...

How this was made: Altered or synthetic content. Sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated. Learn more.

... So I'm pretty annoyed.

I pulled up the first one to look at it again, and there's no Synthetic Content warning on it. So that's even more annoying.

Ya know... AI art has it's place, I suppose. But this? Ugh.

Today is cloudy and warmer and Yay, some sprinkles of rain!

I've really missed the clouds. And I'm so happy with the off and on sprinkles.

We need a lot more than sprinkles, of course. But today is nice!

I walk thru the Solidarity Garden.

And then I wander thru the neighborhood.

Oh! Too fast for me! *laughs*

But really odd for a Western Grey Squirrel to be this far into the city. They normally prefer fewer humans.

I'm loving all the Robins today! They are enjoying the bit of rain as well... brings up the worms!

And Mr Short Tail!

I wonder if he's starting to recognize me... he kind of paused in this awkward position for a few seconds, before carrying on with his day!

The rain started in earnest yesterday afternoon, and it rained all thru the night and still it rains!

It is so good to see the wet prairie puddles filling up!

I walk around a different way to go by Gudu-kut Park...

I think there must be frogs singing at the back of the park... but I can't hear them for the distance and the traffic. But they will be happy with the rain and the puddles!

Back at home... I have been slowly but surely eating the bit of food that I had frozen from last years garden abundance.

I think I've finished off all the bags of Wax Beans. There was one bag that the beans were really fibery and tough, blah. Not sure how that happened. But the rest of them were good!

Plus, I couldn't tell the difference between these that I had just cut up, dried off and froze, and last years beans that I blanched before freezing! So that's great. Blanching is completely unnecessary, and the less kitchen work I have to do, the better!

And now I've gotten into some of the Sungolds and other tomatoes that I froze.

Oh. My. Goodness!!!

Store tomatoes taste like water. These from the garden, taste like heaven! So! So! Good!

So I will be making more of an effort this year to freeze tomatoes!

They were easy to do as well. I just cut the Sungolds in half, the bigger tomatoes into about bite size bits. Put them in a ziplock, including the juices from the big toms, and then make sure it laid flat while it was freezing...

The Sungolds froze separately, and that makes it easy to pull the bag from the freezer, take what I need and put the rest back. But for the juicy bags, the liquid needs to be thin enough in the ziplock that I can break frozen chunks off.

Ha. I can't wait to garden!! :)

Well. We got 1.6inches of rain over the last two days, which seems like a good bit, but doesn't even put a dent in the 8½inches we're behind. And now the sun is back to put us even further behind. sighs.

I'm walking thru the neighborhood, on the way to Hidden Trail and meet up with some Turkeys. And they're all headless! *laughs*

Preening!

Oh, crud! So much for having dry socks!

The Red Flowering Currants have their first blooms!

The waterfall is spring fed, but the rain has provided a bit more volume.

It's lovely to listen to!

I never have much luck with the little birds in this patch of forest, for whatever reason.

Osoberry is starting to come alive as well!

Pretty pretty!

It's dreary today, and the morning is chilly. The wind is blowing, too, and even tho I've got a heavy shirt on under the rain jacket, I am wishing for one more layer!

The loudest ones here are European Starlings. But there's a couple crows watching over the bunch.

And the rest are Brewer Blackbirds!

Oh Hey! My Leucistic friend lets me take a photo!!

But we are not sticking around. BOING!

And here's a regular looking Golden Crown Sparrow.

One of Blazey's Squirrels.

Oh! She dove and came up with someone. I think that's a small crawdad.

La de da, da, da, dah...

*hack, hack*

Oh gross.

Well. That was weird. Maybe you shouldn't eat plastic? ... or ... whatever that was. ick.

The sun is shining but it got down to freezing last night. I'd much prefer a layer of insulating clouds, as is normal for this time of year. But climate change.

I've brought the kitchen scraps to dump on the compost pile at the garden. There's a couple other humans here, but I have a quick look around.

It's been a week since I've done any volunteer work, and I check on Plot 38. I still need to get the Lesser Celandine out of the grassy pathway in front of the plot...

But all the other borders around the plot are remaining clear! Yay!

And then I walk down to my plot... Look!

I uncover the leaves so they can get some light.

Grow! Bloom! Very Happy!

And then I'm out, to keep walking.

Oh! The Cedar Waxwing flock is here again!

But I'm looking into the sun, and I can't see anything on the camera screen. Point and Shoot and Hope!

And then I find some Lesser Goldfinches being beautiful up in a Alder tree, which is catkinning like crazy!

On my way home, I'm thinking about writing an introductory post over at the LetterMo forum!

When I'm out in the sun, and thinking about my words, I am happy and excited!

But when I get in front of the computer, and start typing? Ugh! Everything I say sounds so stupid!

Sheesh! The Month of Letters is practically half over! I have been sending mail every day... Letters the first week, and now I'm sending postcards.

But it would be nice to get over my shyness, and maybe participate a little! Sighs.

*rolls eyes at self*

This morning I came down to water the house plants in the porch room... and Look!!

That spike thing? The Monstera is making a new leaf!

Okay. It's been a week since I've worked on the invasive Lesser Celandine at the Community Garden... and actually, I don't have to do any more. I've added up my volunteer time and I've got 4h17m!! The requirement is for four hours.

But I can't stand the thought of Lesser Celandine growing and blooming and getting worse and worse. So I will continue!

Instead of finishing up in the grassy pathway of plot 38 -- which is going to be a serious pain getting thru the grass -- I've decided to start on plot 15.

I work a bit over a half hour.

Yay! I've made a dent!

I pause before I go, to admire the flowers of the evil plant I'm trying to murder!

And then I walk around the block, thru the neighborhood. And isn't this lovely!!

It's warm enough for a honey bee to be flying around!

But by the time the camera gets around to some focusing, we've only got a bee's butt! haha!

Back at home this afternoon, I've been thinking hard about this article...

∞ Maybe Cutting Off MAGA Relatives Is Wise: Dad Shot Daughter After Trump Row

Horrifying.

But the reason this one hits me... my whole family is varying degrees of Maga. And, yeah, I have thought about 'cutting them off.' Instead, I studiously avoid conversations that will upset me.

And thus far, I've not been shot in the chest. So that's nice.

But the fact that Magas are okay with murder, with the ethnic cleansing that's going on thru ICE, with the child rapist we've got for a president ... with a hundred other evil things...

well? They should be cut off. Because there's something wrong with humans who don't do empathy. Very wrong.

Another dry day. But there's rain in the forecast, starting tonight, and it looks like it'll go all thru to next week!

I'm heading to the garden to work more at plot 15. Before...

And after. I've put a good dent in the clump of Lesser Celandine!

Before I go, I decide to do a walk about to see where else I need to put in work. Walking down the main pathway to the back of the garden... Yikes!

And this is the same plot. Where did they get the dirt to fill this stupid raised bed??? Major Mistake!

Sheesh. And of course, there's some Lesser Celandine growing into the grass all along that path. A plant here, a plant there, and I've not finished the path in front of plot 38, and suddenly I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed.

I'll never be able to get all of this! Especially in the path, it takes so long to dig them out of the grass! ARG. Do I need to think about asking Kevin to send help?? UGH! I don't want to deal with people!

Sighs. And Sheesh. I go to my plot to calm down. The pretty Crocuses, they already look better!

And the single surviving Columbine is trying to grow with some dandelions.

And then I'm heading home.

I'm on the bike path curve and there's a homeless couple ahead of me, talking loudly. And then plainly arguing. I start thinking about walking a different way so I don't have to go past them.

They are still about 3 light poles away and the guy grabs the girl! OH HELL NO!

I yell, HEY! STOP! And of course they ignore me. They fall down, he's shoved her too hard and I start running!! My brain is just: NO, this is NOT going to happen right in front of me!

And it's far enough away, while I'm running towards them, that I have time to think what am I gonna do when I get there?????

I DON'T KNOW!

They are back up when I get there, still yelling at each other. I put myself between them, standing in front of the woman. I tell the guy to get out of here and he's all She punched me!

OMG what is this, the playground? She replies, I swiped you with the paper! she holds up the Weekly she's got.

Yeah, it doesn't matter who started it. It doesn't matter if she did hit him. He's a lot bigger than she is and he needs to go.

Get out of here! He has backed down and is now being conciliatory, and soon, he leaves.

And she walks the other direction, not looking at me or anything.

I walk a little distance behind her. And I make sure the guy keeps walking the other way.

At the road, she's getting off the path and she looks back and says, Thank you. Sorry.

I just give her a nod and a wave.

Happily sprinkling this morning. Which means I'm walking on past the garden.

But as I do, I see something in the sky. It's moving weirdly, and I wonder if it's a drone, tho I can't hear anything...

I zoom in. Oh, it's a party balloon. You know, one of those things that fucking ICE wants to shoot down and close airports over!! So hilarious that those people are such idiots!!

At the other end of the Garden, we get back to happy wildlife in nature. Flicker!

Oh, there's two of them! Both female.

Both a little bit scruffy and muddy from the rain.

As I'm walking behind the Events Center, I see some cars in the parking lot. Wondering what's going on, I walk around to the driveway to look at the sign...

Model Railroad Show. Well that's really fun! Unfortunately, it costs 6$ admission.

That's a bummer. I don't usually carry money with me. It would have been interesting to walk thru, but maybe not $6 worth of interesting!

In the neighborhood beyond... oh, the first cherry blossoms!!

And a couple more over here!

Yay Spring!

Oh hey. It's that female Common Merganser again. Been a while since I've seen her.

And a little bit downstream, I see the Hooded Merganser pair as well.

That's the female, of course. I couldn't get a good pic of the male today...

And you know what? With him always not holding his hood up, I'm just going to assume this is the same pair from last year that I named Zig and Zag. :)

A dreary day, tho there's no rain.

A new stray cat...

the orange markings on his body almost look like letters...
A YEPA

*laughs*

It started raining in the night... and oh! I sleep so well when it rains at night! Blissful!

It's chilly when I leave the house, and a bit of a breeze, so I've got my layers on.

But the rain has stopped so I'm heading for the garden to dig in the mud! I'm going to start working to pry out the Lesser Celandine that's growing in the path in front of the plot in remediation...

Ugh! It's a pain! The mud is annoying, of course. But the grass roots are frustrating to hack thru. I know I'm not getting all the evil bulblets, and eventually I give up in despair.

I didn't get very far, and my little trash bag is not even close to full.

oh well. I do what I can. And every little bit helps.

I've been sending mail out every day so far, this month! Today is a postal holiday, Presidents Day.

I've got a couple letters to go out with tomorrow's mail... But I've finally got all my mailings organized, and I can start thinking about sending postcards to my new LetterMo friends!

I've got the first four printed out and I will write them tomorrow!

I'm excited for the destinations... New Zealand, Wales, Italy and Washington D.C.!! How fun is that!!

We got some good rain yesterday afternoon, 0.71inch, and there's a couple rain showers first thing this morning, too. The kind where the clouds roll in, rain themselves out to a blue sky, and then the next rain clouds roll in!

When I head out the door, there's blue sky. But the clouds are building up again and I assume I'll get rained upon soon.

But I've got my small backpack and my goal is the garden. If it's not raining when I get there, I will see about some work! If it is raining, I will walk on by.

Not interested in the photography, I guess...

A non Zig and Zag pair of Hooded Mergansers are here, this guy holding his hood up.

His mate is nearby, but I can't get her pic before they both hide behind the bushes. Shy.

Here I am at the garden, and oh dangit! I didn't notice I had no focus! *laughs*

oh well. I go in and get set up. It's very muddy, but that raised bed I saw the other day shouldn't be as bad!

I thought this would be relatively easy. But as I tossed the leaf cover, ugh, I found a ton of TINY Lesser Celandines starting to grow underneath.

The seedlings were a major pain, trying to dig down to find the very small bulblets they are growing from.

This is what the bulblets of an established plant looks like...

The bulblet of a seedling just getting started is about the size of a lentil. Stupidly small. and the stem of the seedlings is just more delicate, half the time it would break. sighs.

But I do what I can, and the bed looks clear, anyway...

and I've still got plenty of room in the trash bag, so I have a go at the front corner as well.

That white thing is not nailed down, thank goodness, and I move it out of the way. But ugh. The mud is too annoying right here! I get fed up with it right away.

I'm walking further up the bike path before I go home, and across from Dragonfly Land, oh! There's a group of Robins!

You know what? I am really enjoying the presence of Robins!

Every once in a while, when I wake up, there's a Robin singing nearby. I love to lay there in bed, warm and comfortable, and listen to their cheerful song!

Cheery! Cheerily! Cheery!

Oh!

Haha, this Robin is a juvenile... she still has some spotting on her orange, and a bit of streaking on her head.

She's going about her business...

But she keeps looking back at her parents!

The parents, who are a lot more cautious about the human standing a little bit too close! haha.

It's chilly and sprinkling off and on thru the morning. The sun is trying to break thru when I head out, but with the wind, I'm happy I put on extra layers! I decide to skip the work at the Community Garden.

Oh, hey. The female Common Merganser again!

Since she seems to be hanging around, I've decided to name her.

Princess Buttercup, the Common Merganser.

But perhaps you will not find her Common, now!

Bahaha!

At the Events Center, they are holding their Logging Conference. It's a big deal around here, but imagining that big machinery, destroying everything in the forest makes me sad.

Chilly again today, but just 30% chance of rain, so I'm going to see about some work at the Garden.

Zig and Zag, the Hooded Merganser pair.

I get to the Community Garden, and there's a bunch of pickup trucks in the parking lot. On the other side of the garden, I see four guys working in a half plot, at the end of the aisle, just down from my own plot.

Ugh. I'd have to walk by them to get to the plot that I'm working on. And I don't feel like talking to people today!

It looks like they are putting in their volunteer time, as well. They are getting this plot ready for a new owner! They're digging out weeds, filling up their wheelbarrow. And they've got a tiller as well.

Well. That's nice. But I walk on past.

And it's just as well... a few minutes later, it starts sprinkling. I love to walk in the rain!

Wow. This Turkey Tail fungus is such a bright orange!

I am happy to see this pair of Canada Geese. Maybe I should pick out names for them as well!

Oh, the sparrow with leucism, who is shy about getting their picture taken.

And there's some House Finches hanging out with the sparrows today!

New graffiti... Birds who speak Love! Yay!

The pair of Bluebirds are at the garden again...

Female still thinking about using one of our nesting boxes!!

As I swing around to the exit off the path, to go up to the gate of the Community Garden, arg, a pickup truck pulls into the parking lot. And then a second truck.

I guess the guys yesterday didn't hit their required four hours of volunteer time yesterday.

And, again, I don't want to talk to people. And I kinda don't want to be locked up in an area with four guys, either. I guess I'll keep walking.

Ah, Princess Buttercup!

Oh, look! Blazey's Throne got painted a new colour!

Back when Blazey was alive, they always kept that thing painted lavender, they'd give it a fresh coat of paint every year. But they hadn't repainted it since he died, and this is a rather surprising colour! *laughs*

Someone has Witch Hazel in their yard!

Wow, those Dwarf Irises are blooming already. That's crazy, it's February!!

These are a new colour.

I've got my backpack, to do work at the garden, but I'm gonna assume there will be people there again. I'll probably walk on by.

Happy to see these two, still enjoying our wet prairie puddles!

And even happier to see my new friend Princess Buttercup, the Common Merganser.

Sure enough, at the garden there's a couple people, tho not the same four guys who have been working the last two days.

An older guy is walking at the back of the garden and he recognizes me and waves. I grin and wave back, thru the fence and yeah, I'm going to walk on by again today! *laughs* at my own shyness. :)

A little bit further up the bike path, a murder of crows!

I thought it was pretty sus that they were all facing the same direction. But I couldn't see what they were looking at.

I walk on, but happened to look back. Ah ha! Now I can see who they are yelling about!

A Red Tail Hawk, I think.

Poor girl being mobbed for no reason. heh. But she's taking the attention of dozens and dozens of crows calmly.

Some wild Daffodils...

But it's crazy that I can walk down here. Normally, this time of year, this would be a wet prairie puddle and I would be up to my leg in mud and water!

Some Snowdrops here as well.

I'm walking back the same way and ha, the hawk is still here. Not as many crows, now.

The Red Tail is still calm. Probably just waiting for the Crows to get bored and wander off. :)

I decide to walk a different way home and... Oh Wow!

Cooper Hawk.

And I'm so close, I can really tell how small he is. About the size of a Jay.

So little and cute!

With all that is terrible in the US, I'm trying to distance myself from the news a bit. But this caught my eye.

∞ Oregon's measles surge: why wastewater tracking matters

With RFK jr, anti-vax and conspiracy theorist, as the Secretary of Health and Human Services, diseases are going to go rampant. I suppose he'll be satisfied when polio comes back, but in the meantime, he's fine to kill some kids or make them deaf with measles.

It's despicable and I am so ashamed.

But. I calm myself with Nature. Scroll to look at more pics! Maybe sit with one for a little while, stare and imagine a better world!

On Sundays I like to check my PO Box. That's the address I'm using for LetterMo, and I was a little bit excited to see what was there.

I've gotten a few friend requests, and the normal etiquette is for the member making the request to send mail first.

But I got there and my box is empty. *Sighs*

Oh well. It's maybe much too early to be expecting mail. I've sent a postcard to all my new friends, this past week. And this week I will continue on and send a postcard to all my old friends from previous years.

Zig and Zag are here at the creek... haha, the rain today has messed up Zag's feathers and he has two horns on his head!!

It's raining pretty good, and except for happy ducks, I'm probably not going to see much wildlife today. So I decide to walk up to the neighborhood to the south. I never see wildlife there, but the flowers in people's yards are pretty!

There's Tulips coming up...

And I check the Little Free Library.

Oh! Haha! I was not expecting Turkeys!!

Wow, I wasn't expecting any wildlife and here I've had a pretty lucky day!

And check out these Amazing Camellias with variegated petals!!

It was sprinkling off and on all day yesterday but at 3:20 this morning it started pouring! It woke me up and I was happy!

And it kept pouring! All thru the morning and still, as I'm walking!

The sprinkles of yesterday added up to 0.42 inches. But there must be inches of rain today! (Yep! 2.35inches total for Feb23!)

Of course that's not really putting a dent in the 8½ inches we are behind. BUT! We've gone well over the normal for February...
Normal = 3.84 and Rainfall as of today = 5.98 inches!

Awesome! and the creek is full!

And good to see our wet prairie puddles filling up!

And, of course, the path is flooded under the bridges.

And the wet prairie where I was down taking photos of the wild Daffodils and Snowdrops? Yay!

Mud-luscious and Puddle-Wonderful!! (e.e. cummings)

I stop in at the garden, but just to drop off kitchen scraps at the compost pile. The Garden is on wet prairie land as well, and there are puddles forming here too. No ponds yet, tho!

The rain continued, and it sprinkled all night. So nice!

And the sprinklings are still coming down as I head out.

The bike path is still flooded under the bridges.

And still too chilly for the Crocuses to open.

The Lenten Roses don't mind the chill, tho.

Or the Camellias.

There's these three Killdeers out in the field again. A bit too far away for photography, but I'm kind of curious about them.

Oh sure. The ONE photo I get that's actually in focus...

And who are you, anyway?

Oh right... Female House Sparrow. It always surprises me, how different they look from the males!

House Sparrows are invasive from Europe, and common across most of North America and much of South America as well. They aren't terribly common here, tho I do admit, when I notice them I usually just keep walking instead of stopping for photography.

But... Today hasn't been a great day for the picture taking, anyway. *laughs*

At the back of Gudu-Kut Park, ah, some happy frogs singing!

Pacific Chorus Frogs. I would listen to them all day!

The wonderful rain of the last two days kept sprinkling off and on thru the night. But now the clouds have broken up and we've got more of our new abnormal weather: blue sky, chilly nights, all thru the foreseeable.

Sighs. Stupid climate change.

Princess Buttercup!

And the pair of Canada Geese are still here!

The Mallards mostly stay out of the creek when the water is high. But the Mergansers are braving the current!

The Mallards are enjoying the calmer waters of the wet prairie puddles.

I was coming back thru the Events Center parking lot, and a black thing way up in a tree on the other side kept drawing my attention. I thought I saw it moving, but it could have just been a black plastic bag catching the breeze.

I took a photo and zoomed in to look...

I saw the tail... definitely a woodpecker. And then they flew away and all I could see is black... And they sang their song...

Oh My Gosh! Pileated Woodpecker!!

These birds are SO COOL! And I wished I had been on the other side of the parking lot so I could have a chance at photography. Oh well.

Pileateds are Huge! And they are a sign of a healthy ecosystem.

Well. Not here, specifically, in the parking lot of the Events Center in the middle of the city! *laughs* He's just passing thru! But when you see Pileateds out in their home territory in the forest? That would be the healthy ecosystem!

And they remind me of the recently extinct Ivory Billed Woodpeckers down in Florida. I have an interest in the recently extinct, and I will definitely go down a rabbit hole while I'm thinking about them. Ivory Billed and Passenger Pigeons and Thylacines and Quaggas!

Okay. Back to my flowers!

The perfectly placed red graffiti on the fence behind amuses me greatly!!

Cloudy and chilly this morning. And I'm heading to the Community Garden to work in the mud.

And as I walk behind Gudu-kut Park... a whole chorus of tree frogs is singing!! I'm so glad they have puddles for their babies now!

I listen to them for a while before moving on.

Okay! I'm at the Garden and looking at the pathway in front of plot #38.

In some places, the Lesser Celandine is pretty thick.

But other places, it's just a few leaves sticking up here and there. Ugh. This is going to be difficult.

Difficult and muddy. It's really annoying. But I fill up the trash bag.

And then I have to spend some time cleaning the muddy tools. Arg, annoying!

But look who's coming over!

He requests pets and I am happy to oblige.

I didn't get very much done today, maybe two feet. And look at how much is growing on this side too.

It's going to take forever.

I walk around the block before going home.

A squirrel was looking down at me from a cherry tree and I was all oh my gosh you are beautiful up there! But when I got the camera out, this is what I get...

Bahaha!

Oh, dang it. That Sparrow with leucism is being uncooperative as well. But that's normal.

And back at home, the Monstera is unfurling it's new leaf!

I've enjoyed this guy's funny medical YouTube channel for a while. I don't know where he lives, but this is the second post he's made about the local hospital, here in Eugene.

∞ Corporate Healthcare Strikes Again

So here's the deal.

December 2023... Peace Health CLOSED the hospital in Eugene. It was downtown and got a lot of traffic from homeless people. And you don't make money treating homeless people right? So it's closed. Please note, that was Eugene's ONLY Emergency Department.

Wait times at the Peace Health Emergency Department in Springfield jumped up, and for a while they were treating patients in the hallways because they didn't have room for everyone! Fucking Ridiculous.

And now, it's just over two years later and hospital administration has decided to fire our ER Doctors and staff the ER with an out of state, corporate group. Apparently the ER doctors are not employed directly by the hospitals, which seems weird.

But of course, everyone freaked out that they were firing our ER docs. And the administrators were all, we don't need to consult you about the choices we make! (ha! Srsly! They said that out loud!!) And they tried to justify this change because the corporate group is good about reducing Emergency Department wait times. And they go round and round with their words, but you know... YOU KNOW! This corporate group is cheaper and it's all about money, and not actual patient outcomes!

And the administration were also saying: But No Worries! This out of state corporate group is SO AWESOME and it usually hires the local ER doctors! So, everyone's happy, right?!

And 100% of our fired ER docs (Eugene Emergency Physicians = 41 doctors) were all: Oh Hell No! They've all refused to be a part of the corporate group. And good for them, corporate is evil. There's a reason why the corporate group is cheaper... They limit the time the doctors spend with patients, and they don't pay the doctors what they are worth!

So earlier this week, ALL the doctors at the hospital -- there's 367 of them -- held a vote and 93% said No Confidence in the administrators. Next week, the nurses will hold a vote as well, and I'm sure it will be about the same.

But what does a vote of no confidence mean? Probably nothing in the real world. But it does get us some national attention!

Overcast this morning but the clouds are clearing out as I start my walk.

And I'm at the garden again to murder Lesser Celandine in the pathway again.

It's muddy and it's not long before I'm frustrated, but I get another small section mostly dug out.

I have been working a little over half an hour at a time, generally. And with today's time, I'm almost at 8 hours of volunteer time. Twice the requirement!

*laughs* but I can't quit! I'm so close to getting all the way around plot 38! And there's the back of plot 15 that really needs help. And more Lesser Celandine popping up all over the stupid place.

*Wails* Did Trump just start World War 3???

What the hell? Just, what the hell?

And this is another CLEARLY ILLEGAL action, and the military has completely abdicated it's duty to uphold the constitution. Again.

Right? Because the president doesn't get to declare war, randomly!

I am so sorry, World. Starting a war just to distract from the Epstein files. Will somebody please just arrest him, already?

I'm upset when I leave the house, and I'm not thinking about where I want to walk or anything. I just do exactly what I did yesterday, grabbing my small backpack and walking toward the garden.

Oh! Princess Buttercup has a companion! That's good!

I'm at the garden and no one else is here, so I may as well go in and work.

I don't usually like to visit the garden on the weekends. But at some point, there will be gardeners coming in to work in their plots, and I'll have to quit murdering invasives in everyone else's plots. So I suppose it's just as well that I'm getting more done today.

It's such hard work, digging in the grass, and trying to separate the Lesser Celandine from the grass roots. My little hand spade is almost useless here, the grass roots are too thick and the edges of the spade need to be sharpened. But the fork is useless as well, bringing up solid blocks of mud and grass. frustrating.

And I'm out and back on the bike path. Here's Zig and Zag.

*laughs* still trying to get a squirrel in a Cherry Tree...

I guess it's pretty impossible. ha, oh well!

Yep, I'm such a sucker for the Cherry Blossoms!

Oh no.

∞ The most bitter news: Iran reels as more than 100 children reportedly killed in school bombing
The building appears to be among many devastated in Trump's 'major combat operations' as long expected attacks arrive

We murdered elementary school children.

Who will punish us for our war crimes?