The weekend was busy with digging out from between 12 and 16 inches of snow over three or four days. We had a dusting more over night but the temperature has dropped like a rock into the single digits. But, as usual, a warm up is predicted with rain which will make short work of a good bit of the snow. Not, of course, the mountains that were plowed from the streets, driveways and sidewalks.

In addition we were engaged in some housework. Laundry on Saturday and then some dusting and rearranging on Sunday. Some of that because of the addition of two young cats just before Christmas. Our last three were mature when we set up here--5 to 7 years old. These are only 1 and 3 years old so there is a lot of kitten left in them. One is a climber and a scratcher and both are fascinated by the large hibiscus. They are both stubborn as the proverbial mule so scaring them, shooing them and lightly smacking them didn't work. I think we may have licked most of the problem. I spray the hibiscus with a lemon juice/water solution and we have been dusting our shelves with orange Pledge. They don't like citrus. I have also rubbed the woodwork panel she liked to scratch on with the pledge which has also worked--so far.

I plan more dusting and rearranging today. I need to look over the herbs I dried last fall and dispose of some. We simply don't use them. That will give me an idea of what I won't plant again and what I should plant more of because we do use them. I cut back on sage last year but we are out--partly because our jar fell out of the spice cabinet when Mom was looking for a different herb. She makes up her own spice/herb blends many of which use sage.

This article is no surprise. For anyone surprised I suggest the read Hitler's Willing Executioners and
Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem where she coined the phrase "banality of evil." The old saying holds that for evil to thrive it only needs good people to keep silent.