It is a very nice day today--warm and sunny with not much wind. I got the black vernissage tomatoes (e), lavender (2), oregano, sweet basil, purple basil, bee balm, peppermint, and lemon balm planted (1 each), and reset a trellis. I quit after getting everything watered because it is getting quite warm now. I won't get any gardening done tomorrow because we will be taking the car in for its spring tune-up and we expect rain.

Not doing much gardening today. We spent far more time shopping than normal. We thought we would only hit two stores but wound up going to four. For the last few months we have shopped at Walmart because they were the only source for the brand of yogurt we like. We like the whole milk yogurt and refuse to buy the skim and fat free versions. Today, however, Walmart didn't have it so we had to make a 40-mile round trip to the nearest Jewel which is the only reasonably close store to carry it. I have threatened to start making our own it they stop stocking it. Then we needed to restock the honey and our preferred "brand" (a local family product) is only available at a small health foods store. I took the opportunity to stock up on a couple of their herbal teas. And, finally, we finished our shopping at the local supermarket for the last few items on our list. The whole trek wore us both out. I did find a couple of very nice lavender plants at the Jewel garden center.

Perhaps you think we are just a bit too picky but don't you get tired of settling for what this commercialized world consents to sell you? We sure do.

I am rather familiar with this story having lived in Colorado for many years back before "drought" became an every day topic of discussion.

Well, today should be a good day for the gardens. It was a bit too windy to get much done yesterday besides arranging some of the pots and checking what might need watering.

Found this early today. I have often complained that most of the "tributes" to veterans have been cheap, meaningless verbiage. It does no substantial good for any of the veterans. This "tribute" won't be cheap but it will be just as meaningless.

I am done in the gardens for the day. Got 2 ranunculus, 3 geraniums, two sage and three thyme planted and placed. That involved a bit of rearranging of pots already in place. Then I dug out some more of one of the tubs that will be going in the trash. I also culled the seedlings I started. Several surprised me. They didn't look like they did all that well under the lights upstairs but they perked up outside. But it is getting a tad warm so I put all the tools away.

Supposed to be windy but dry today so some garden work is on the schedule. Everything, so far, looks good after the last day and a half of intermittent, sometimes heavy, rain. The strawberries are shooting up so fast you can almost see them grow.

This story illustrates what I see as a trend in our society: if you have the money to buy, you get the services you need. This deals with fire prevention/fighting services offered as part of an insurance program for properties worth more than $1million. The rest of us have to rely on overstretched and budget-starved public services. We see it in medicine: think concierge doctors. We see it in education: think private and charter schools.

A sad statement on what this country and the internet has become.

Our TV news noted that Bill Cosby had been expelled from the Motion Picture Academy but not that Roman Polanski had also been voted out. This story has that detail. I wonder if they finally acted on Polanski, forty years after he was convicted of raping a 13-year-old, merely to avoid the appearance of racism. One black male predator balanced with one white male predator--see,  everything balances out. NOT EVEN!!!

So some schools in the U.K. are taking analog clocks out of class rooms and replacing them with digital. Why? Because the kids can't read them.

Infidel753 provides a bit of sardonic humor while describing the current state of our this nation. I am not too sure I want to claim any part of it right now.

No gardening today. We had waves of heavy rain and thunderstorms overnight. More on tap for today. I won't complain since we needed the moisture and I won't have to water anything for the next couple of days.

This story caught my eye first off. The article says dust storms aren't unusual in that part of India though the death toll (which is likely to go higher) is unusual. I notice that we have had more dust storms over the last decade. Climate change???

This is one article I mostly agree with. We have an economy that benefits the parasites over anyone else and we are being bled white by them.

Dignity of labor??? I guess that depends on who is doing the laboring and who is pontificating. For much of what passes for work in this society/economy dignity is sorely lacking--as is compensation.

Well, it is nice but getting warm. I haven't done anything in the gardens so far and, probably, won't do much for the rest of the day. We did visit two of the garden shops and I picked up some plants: sage, oregano, spearmint, peppermint, sweet basil, purple basil, thyme, lemon thyme, red and white geraniums and red and yellow ranunculus. That is a good start. I will add to those as the season progresses. But all the walking tired me out so no digging today. I might trim the hibiscus and get it into the position I planned for it.

A bit of sticker shock today: gas at $2.95/gal. Ouch!! that is about $0.30 higher than it was on Monday. The news readers are saying it will go higher and, for the first time in a long while, are giving hints on when to fill up to minimize the pain.

Happy May Day!! It is finally feeling like spring going into summer. Tee shirt weather today. Yippee!!

Got two more buckets filled yesterday. Hope to get one of the large tubs completely empty and in the trash. I will move the hibiscus and large rosemary outside for the season--unless we get weather conditions I won't name. We are still 15 days away from the last average freeze date for this area. I have seedlings to put in the little greenhouse to harden off and a bunch of strawberries in their modified pots to hang. The hose is all hooked up and I used it yesterday to water all of the strawberries which are looking better and better each day.

Have already arranged spaces and hung up 15 pots of strawberries. And had a wonderful surprise: the clematis survived the winter and is putting up some small shoots. I placed it inside a wall 'o' water that had sprung a leak and packed the space between with leaves. Evidently it worked. It is such a good feeling when something works. I moved the hibiscus outside which has pissed off one of the cats (she likes to munch). The temperatures should be more to its liking from now till late next fall. I put the older rosemary out in one of the fence hangers with a bungee cord anchoring it against the wind.