pool weather

flower watch

the indica azaleas are purty swell right now ---

far side of the moon

temper tantrum

The Tea Party was born in 2009. It is now two years old. All parents know what the "terrible twos" look like. What's happening now on Capitol Hill is unmistakable: the Tea Party is throwing a tantrum. When they first arrived in Washington, the Tea Party freshman class was fawned over and adored. They were given seats on powerful committees. They took special classes about the Constitution and spent a lot of time talking about what they thought was in it. They held votes to stick it to their least favorite things -- women's health care, environmental protection, and public radio. But then something happened. The Tea Party discovered it couldn't get everything it wanted.

which is as good an interpretation of the present situation as i've seen

something to remember

dammit

and if it happens it will be because republicans want to put a bunch of their crap riders on the spending bill, just like they did in 1995 --- i think i've said it before: republicans are assholes

the new piedmont park

35 acres of new park opens april 12 (next tuesday) --- read all about it --- remember clear creek as a giant concrete sewer and the surrounding area a dump and all grown up in honeysuckle and privet? --- no more ---

cazwell's got a new video

storm porn

it was roaring on the balcony last night, blowing the furniture around and turning the plants over --- there were some of those greenish skies like when the tornado went thru downtown, which provoked me and the guys to leave the bedroom for a more interior space ---but the power didn't go off and the windows didn't blow in, unlike most of the folks around 8th st. east of piedmont where the trees fell down and there's still no power this evening --- several squashed cars and a couple of residences within three blocks ---

waiting on a storm

a great evening for the botanical garden --- 

maxillaria tenuifolia

this one small blossom, not quite1½"across, has my entire bedroom smelling like fresh coconut --- and more are on the way

r & r: day 4

a fine day, a really fine day --- me and dog took robert to stumble around the north end of the palisades this afternoon --- the best thing was this giant pine tree, at least 4.5 ft in diameter, struck by lightning or something and most of the inside burned out, but still standing --- when you're there it is very hard to remember that you are still inside the perimeter

blooms

i think it is safe to say that i have stumbled upon appropriate growing conditions for these two units --- both in full flower today

r & r: day 3

purty fine day today, if you like that sort of thing --- leisurely morning with the animals and then me and dog went to the river, west palisades, which is the best part --- an excellent time to be out now before the bugs come out --- spiderwort and buttercup, azalea, and great herds of mayapple

r & r: day 2

drove to fayetteville in the afternoon and then out hwy. 92 to sweetwater creek --- passed through the wreckage of exurban real estate, with great stone-walled entrances to bankrupt subdivisions, landscaped but grown up in broom sage, streets and utilities to houses that aren't there ---- we had the creek purty much to ourselves

blooms

this is the first time this oncydium has re-bloomed for me --- nice little fragrance to go with a really wonderful blossom

r & r: day 1

did my parents' taxes in the a.m., then me and dog went to arabia mountain and walked 5+ miles up and down the mountain --- the little red diamorpha smallii is really great right now --- an amazing amount of water coming out of the rock, especially on the south side of the mountain --- the north end was really beat up from mining a hundred years ago --- it's not even fun to walk across, and we wouldn't have, but i kinda lost the trail, which isn't really marked beyond the south summit

energy nirvana

Scientists today claimed one of the milestones in the drive for sustainable energy — development of the first practical artificial leaf. Speaking here at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, they described an advanced solar cell the size of a poker card that mimics the process, called photosynthesis, that green plants use to convert sunlight and water into energy.

does this house look like hitler?

pejoratives

a friend asked about the origins of the term "white trash" --- they go back a ways

The term white trash first came into common use in the 1830s as a pejorative used by house slaves against poor whites. In 1833 Fanny Kemble, an English actress visiting Georgia, noted in her journal: "The slaves themselves entertain the very highest contempt for white servants, whom they designate as 'poor white trash'".[4][5]

In 1854, Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the chapter "Poor White Trash" in her book A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin. Stowe tells the reader that slavery not only produces "degraded, miserable slaves", but also poor whites who are even more degraded and miserable. The plantation system forced those whites to struggle for subsistence. Beyond economic factors, Stowe traces this class to the shortage of schools and churches in their community, and says that both blacks and whites in the area look down on these "poor white trash".[6]

By 1855 the term had passed into common usage by upper class whites, and was common usage among all Southerners, regardless of race, throughout the rest of the 19th century.[7]

end times for america

This is going to get repetitive, we’re afraid, but every aspect of the “financial crisis” in the United States is due to corporations not paying taxes and the very richest .01% individuals not paying taxes. That’s it, that’s the whole thing — your crumbling schools, your sinkhole highways, your abandoned state parks, the laid-off city maintenance worker who leaps to his death in Costa Mesa after half the town’s workforce is replaced by hourly contractors and the mayor hires a $12,000-a-month P.R. manager, everything. General Electric, America’s largest corporation and the second-biggest company on Earth, simply does not pay any taxes at all.

republicans are assholes --- and don't miss herbert's farewell to the times --- 

When the most powerful country ever to inhabit the earth finds it so easy to plunge into the horror of warfare but almost impossible to find adequate work for its people or to properly educate its young, it has lost its way entirely.

"praise the lard"?

The study, conducted by researchers at Northwestern University, found that young adults who frequently attended religious activities were far more likely to become obese than those who didn’t.

if you're from the south and baptist, you're gonna be a lard ass, i guess

the stench of spring is in the air

even the invasives are nice

looking for dexter

first robin i've seen on the 13th floor

phalenopsis sunshine

dog napping

dog was tuckered out for the ride back home

desoto falls

a much easier walk than blood mountain

neel's gap

neel's gap in the blue ridge was where my grandpa used to take my ma and the family in the 30s --- the old ccc-built inn and restaurant is still there although now it is the walasi-yi interpretive center, basically a glorified visitor center for this section of the appalachian trail --- something about the place reminded me of little five points, what with the shoes in the trees and all

traveling guinness

the dog is an excellent hiking companion, indefatigable --- he hesitated a minute when he had to skip on rocks across a creek, but then went right on, usually leading the way

hunting for bears

that's dog taking in the scenery at flat rock gap, where a peach tree was blooming! we crawled a little way up the side of blood mountain, which was our destination, but fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, i left our water in the car and we gave out half way up the mountain, which is really quite tragic when you think about it --- very very quiet up there, which is one reason to go --- the parking lot was nearly full today, i can't imagine what it would be like in june ---

that's a view of blood mountain from flat rock gap --- the mountain was considered a sacred place by the cherokee and in the late seventeenth century they fought an epic battle with the creek just to the northwest at slaughter gap --- after that, the creek withdrew to the southeast side of the chattahoochee

parking for day trips is at point a on the map with a nice hike with a creek on the left for about half the distance --- that trail intersects the appalachian trail at flat rock gap (point b) which continues up and across blood mountain --- we quit at point c and went back down the appalachian trail to neel's gap (point d) and then down the road to the car --- a nice long walk ---

great cinema

r.i.p.

she was one of our first public friends in hollywood, when every body was still terrified of all things gay ---

fashionable empowerment

I honestly believe that if an individual is brave [and/or apathetic] enough, they can survive with a wardrobe of maybe four outfits.

i try ---

where to draw the line

sometimes you just have to say, no, i shan't continue this conversation ---