Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the first day of summer. We finally got some sun yesterday. We wondered for a bit if the weather people had lied to us--again. We may have some nasty storms later today but I hope to get some rosemary and lemon verbena harvested and dried. And I saw a number of tomatoes that need a bit of pruning and some plants I need to tie up on trellises.

Hey, Lois, your boys can commiserate with my boy. We close up when the air conditioner kicks in and he has to, reluctantly, stay in or when we get heavy rain. Right now he is very unhappy.

This was the first story I saw this morning. About three years ago I saw a similar story though i that one the 'criminal' committed the crime to get housing until the time when he could qualify for public housing. All I can say is--how pathetic is a system in which anyone would see jail as the only way to get the medical care he so obviously needs. Another fabulous example of our 'ownership' society where everyone is on his own.

And then following that story was this one. As far as doing anything about it--well considering that a conference between various governments to put stricter limits on harvesting blue fin tuna (a population that is near collapse) failed to do anything. Particularly influential governments (read--Japanese) refused to even consider new restrictions.

The record flooding on the Missouri hasn't made much news over here. This story indicates that there may be more of a story than we might think. Of course, everyone and every agency at all levels are denying the story--though the FAA did declare a 'no-fly zone' and evidently there was a fire at the spent fuel pond. But then I remember how the Japanese government and TEPCO denied there was a problem at Fukushima. I don't necessarily trust the source of this story--but then I really don't trust the denials either. And, of course, we have other problems with nuclear plants that rarely make the news.

Well, the lemon verbena and the rosemary are in the dehydrator. I filled all six trays--the last is half verbena and half rosemary. I normally don't mix the herbs on a tray but the two are so different I won't mix them up. I cut both plants back severely so they should bush out very well. I think I will try to take cuttings off the verbena--my little book says it is easy to grow from cuttings. We'll see.