Good Monday, Everyone.  Blessedly cool today and we did get rain last night.  The rain was hard enough that I worried a bit about some of the smaller plants but everything came through nicely.  I won't have to water things today.  The temperatures are supposed to stay in the high 60s which makes it perfect weather to do some of the trimming on the tomatoes and roses I need to do.  Tomorrow morning I will pick a large bunch of spinach we will eat at dinner. Then I will need to start another set.  Later in the week, when the warm returns I will start picking the lettuce.  I also should transplant the lemon verbena and some pyrethrum.  The tansy and pyrethrum have been very difficult about sprouting but, if I can get a couple of good plants each, they are hardy and should survive well in the gardens over winter.

The broadcast news is useless--it is NATO and NATO demonstrations non-stop.  Thankfully, I have other sources for news and commentary.  One would think that the only dispute was a mild disagreement between Hollande of France and the rest of NATO over when French troops will withdraw (Hollande says by the end of this year; official withdrawal by the end of 2014.)  Here is a better discussion of Afghanistan courtesy of the BBC.  Although neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan are members of NATO, both countries dominate the discussions.  I just turned off Good Morning America in utter irritation.  Their teaser into the NATO story made it sound as though Chicago were under siege from violent protests.  That isn't the story we are getting from the Chicago outlets.  Actually, most of what we have seen has been tame compared with some of the G-8 and G-20 meetings in the recent past.  Perhaps the story itself was more measured but the teaser was definitely off the wall.

I have seen some fantastic stories of metal thefts in Europe over the last several months.  Here is one from Britain.