Sunday--

Very cool again this morning but clear skies.  I plan to harvest some more herbs for drying this morning but haven't anything else on the agenda.  I took all but one of the tumbler tomatoes off the fence because of the wind.  I won't put them back up.  Instead I will get some new lower growing herbs to replace them when we go the the farm market on Tuesday.  The tomatoes are distributed around the patio in more protected areas.  The wind was strong enough it nearly picked the pots up our of the baskets holding the on the fence.  I have never seen wind do that here.  I also transplanted the little blueberry into a larger pot.  So far it appears to be doing well--new growth and nice healthy green.

Excellent commentary from Helen at Margaret and Helen.

Monday--

Wet and cool today so I won't be doing much outside.  Just a quick trip outside to check on things.  At least we don't have the awful wind.  I harvested Moldavian balm, lemon thyme, rosemary and lavender yesterday.  All dried and ground and on the shelf now.  Also cleaned up the shelf so I know what I have where.  Haven't seen many bees so far.  Hope the herbs and other plants flowers will attract more.  No mason bees yet.

I have been hearing about this for the last week on several of the gardening blogs I read.

Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism linked to this story with the comment that the story is old and "sank without a trace.  Odd, that."  I am not surprised either by the corruption or that the story got so little traction.  The current philosophy driving much of our politics is privatization of public services which simply transfers public funds and goods into private pockets and provides a ripe field for corruption.  Do we really expect corporate controlled media to criticize other corporations' looting of the public sector (i.e., taxpayers)?  I don't.

Bloomberg has an interesting animated graph comparing the increased temperatures over the last 130 years and various factors that have been proposed as the causative agents of the change.  I won't keep you in suspense over the results.  The only factor which actually correlates with the increase is--greenhouse gasses released by human activity

Here is a feel good story for cat lovers.

From the "if your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like nails" file.  The war ethos Astore writes about has been growing for a long time.  Now-a-days we have irate "Christians" upset and yelling about a "war on religion" when every any one challenges their overwhelming occupancy of public space and insistence that their interpretation of Biblical rules apply universally.  The war imagery tells us exactly what to expect: no quarter, no compromise.

I love this flow chart that demolishes the anti-gay marriage argument based on Leviticus.  They really need to read all the "paperwork."

Found this on Armstrong Economics.  Damn these idiotic politicians.