Good morning, Everyone.  Sunny but cool this morning.  But a stiff breeze has started up.  I think I will let the temperature get a bit higher before I go out and see what I can get done.  We stopped by one of my favorite garden centers (the year-round farmer's market) yesterday.  They are rapidly getting in new plants.  I found my stevia and lemon verbena.  I don't have any more plants on my shopping list so any future purchases will be something that intrigues me not something I need.  I saw some really cute plants over the last week.  The candy corn plant produces tricolor blossoms that resemble candy corn (surprise!!) and the shrimp plant was formed into a topiary with shrimp shaped flowers in shades of red and yellow.  But with as small a space as I have I would rather have utilitarian plants.  Many are very pretty but the primary concern is that they produce something useful or perform a useful service (like bug control).

I found this entry in the 'oh, my.  What weird weather!' file on the BBC this morning.  How often have you heard of tornados in England?

I absolutely hate the new climate of more intensely money driven politics.  And I hate the anonymous donors even more.  If they are going to give those megabucks they should acknowledge their gifts and be up front about what they hope to gain from them.

Grist posted this interesting article this morning.  I have been reading about the increasing resistance insect pests are developing but the article puts a real twist on the issue.  Apply insecticide and after a while you get resistant insect--we have known this for a while.  But, it appears, you also get bacteria that thrive on the insecticide and when those bacteria set up in the insect guts they confer immunity on their host as well--in a lot quicker time than if the insect pest alone became resistant.