Supposed to be cool with a 50% possibility of rain. Everything in the gardens looks good except for the 2 Vernissage tomatoes. They and all the other seedlings I started look sickly. I might just cut my losses and buy transplants. This is the worst year I have had for seed starting. The strawberries, however, are doing well and several are blooming.

Every now and then I do get depressed when something I try doesn't work, especially something that has worked spectacularly well. Like the tomatoes which I easily grew in abundance until the last couple of years. But then I read a blogger who is in the same boat and tries again with hope for future success. Judith O'Grady's post today perked me up marvelously.

I saw a quip the other day that claimed if you can protest police actions and not be arrested you are not living in a police state. I think we might have passed that point.

One for the "What Is Old Is New Again" file.

Irrussianality makes a point I have been thinking since W was in the White House: It is time for the world to formulate an international system in which the U.S. can participate but not dominate. I think the first cracks came when Angela Merkel commented (for the benefit of the German electorate) that they couldn't depend on the U.S. any more and Germany along with the rest of Europe would have to make their separate plans. A former president (T. Roosevelt) once said we should "walk (or talk, I've seen both) softly but carry a big stick." For at least the last 50 years most presidents have remembered the last half and ignored the first.