Lazy, cool Thursday. Disappearing birds. Schoolyard bullies. American Exceptionalism (sarcasm intended). That's a bargain??? Unusual little gardens. Plastic recycling.

It is almost 7am at the moment and the sun isn't really up yet.  It is light out by no sun.  A month ago it would have been well up by now.  The seasons are definitely changing.  The weather people are predicting a "warm up"--into the low 80s.  I did collect some more borage and cypress vine seeds.  I said before that the hummingbirds have disappeared but I think some of the goldfinches have also gone on to where ever they go in the winter.  A couple of the males showed up but where they were almost fluorescent yellow they are more dun colored now.  For a while we had crowds of small birds flocking to our feeder.  With the cooler weather the gardens don't need as much water and the tomatoes and peppers are ripening much more slowly.

Ezra Klein takes apart what the Repthuglicans are putting out as an opening bid on the debt ceiling debate.  This illustrates why I find our current political atmosphere so nauseating.  These aren't serious statesmen.  We have a bunch of schoolyard bullies trying to steal our lunch money.

Tom Englehardt has a post this morning on American Exceptionalism.  He is so right on the money here.

I love to look at pictures of unusual garden containers--especially the small, space conserving containers.

It looks like we Americans are going to have to figure out how to recycle our plastic waste ourselves.  China doesn't want it any more.