Good Monday to you all.  Well, the weather people have been right--we have rain today, so far, and the temperature is in the mid 40s.  Most of the snow we had has melted but we expect more over the coming weekend when the temperatures go back into the freezer.  I did get some of my records updated for the new seed varieties and have started my calendar.  See how things go.  I have never ended up in the fall with the garden I planned in the spring.

Just took a look at the gardens.  First time in about two weeks--before the nearly a week of 0 and sub-0 weather. Right now the tansy, pyrethrum, lavender, sage, oregano and marjoram are looking a bit sickly.  We'll see how they come back.  The good new is that the strawberries look fairly good.

Oh, yeah, Leigh.  Every now and then there is something positive on the news.  However, more often we find new problems--or rather a new head on some hydra-headed problem.  Plastic manufacturers have rushed to get the BPA out of the plastic after popular protests but I just found references to a substitute for BPA that may be even more toxic.  This article also provides some information on the topic.

Here is one for the 'what government isn't telling its citizens' file.  Our media didn't really cover the Fukushima nuclear disaster well (along with the earthquake and tsunami).  Evidently our government was far more worried that they let on.  I hope the rest of the Asahi Shimbun article is posted.  I found this installment on Fire Dog Lake.

This is one reason why I have a very dismal view of our prospects of getting a handle on our national budget.  Don't you just love the notion of taxpayers footing the bill (or most of the bill) for corporate misbehavior?  And let's not forget the tab for bailing out the too-big-to-fail banks which hasn't been fully repaid no matter what the media apologists have said.

Ah, it looks like James Kunstler wasn't impressed with the second Obama Inaugural.  I rather agree with him.

For some time a running joke here is that every time sales of some food go down a new study comes out about how healthy the stuff is for you.  Or every time some nutrition study (usually a preliminary study) which indicates that this, that, or the other food isn't healthy another study will surface in a couple of months to prove the opposite.  Well, this article on Grist gives an idea of how deeply food manufacturers have infiltrated the nutrition 'industry.'  We take any nutritional advice or study with a gigantic dose of skepticism.

The Netherlands will soon lose a queen and gain a king--for the first time since 1890.  Queen Beatrix will abdicate as of April 30 and her son will become king.