And The May Garden Is So Different

Candy Geraniums

Yellow Irises

It's almost a month later from my last blog about all the flowers in my garden and now everything has changed. Gone are the tulips and daffodils and it's all irises and budding roses and geraniums and peonies.
It's a lot of pink and yellow and even blue and very exciting to see everything coming out blooming again.

King Peonies

Pixie Queen Irises

Miniature Blue Iris

I've been growing these flowers for years now and it's always a lovely surprise when the leaves shoot up and the buds form and then -- usually after a few days of sun and heat -- the flowers start to unfurl.  Each year the flowers are different, either a bulb has doubled and there are more flowers or somehow the plant is making bigger flowers, or in the case of the Queen Elizabeth rose bush, smaller flowers seem to be appearing, but a lot more than usual.  I've spied about 20 buds there! And for some other reason the miniature blue irises doubled and are a huge mass this year.  Just so delightful!

Queen Elizabeth Roses Budding

We Want Our Park Back! Obamaville Has Gotta Go!

Trash bins at OccupyDC site

Rat hole at OccupyDC Site

It's not clear why this is misspelt

I don't know why the mainstream media makes so much of the squatters who call themselves OccupyDC as if they are heroes fighting for liberty or something. I just don't get a clear sense of what they are for, or what they are against.  I wandered past their tent village at McPherson Square a couple of times and snapped a few photos to try and get a sense of what they are about.  They were either all absent or maybe sleeping. It was about noon time and a few came out of tents scratching their heads and looking like they were just waking up.  During my meander, at least two people on the street nearby talked to me about how the tent people have ruined the grass and plantings in this park. McPherson Square was re-lawned and repaired last year for about $300K of "stimulus" money (which means we still owe the money!).  Today, of course, there's no grass due to the tents. And it looks like some of the plants have disappeared. It's clear the rats are having a feast of it. I saw at least one large rat skipping along merrily among the tents and then dive into his rat-hole when I got nearer. He'd bypassed the rat trap quite effectively on his way back from the the food tent.  I heard some news yesterday via another blog that the food tent had been closed down due to the rat problem.  Apparently, there's some legal case going on with the squatters and the National Park Service who has jurisdiction over the square and on January 17 there could be legal action taken by the feds in regard to the "camping" going on. INMHO, it's time to shut this Obamaville down.

Wisdom in Congress?

While on my way to a meeting in a Senate office, I happened across a collection of representational sculptures in one of the underground connecting passageways. These larger than life busty ladies and lusty lads had labels such as Wisdom and Knowledge and brandished spears and tools to emphasize the point to us passersby! I quickly snapped these fabulous figurines dressed in first century Greek garb with my very 21st century cheapo cell phone that allows me to miraculously send these images instantaneously to my computer for later retrieval when I want to blog about something.  What would those personages from that far-off time think of our everyday gadgets? Were these ladies about to jab me for daring to photograph them so glibly as I passed by their grand gestures on the importance of rational thought?   Alas, I'm sure they'd get pretty upset at our modern world for usurping their power and believing  in nothing but ourselves and our own strengths. Or does Wisdom forgive us such trespass?

Blogging and Ads

I had no idea that this blog could lead to me making money. That is, when setting up this blog there's an option to "monetize" the blog. So I clicked on that tab and filled in my name and address and slam bam wham, thank you God for the ham, I could get paid depending on if people click on things in the right hand column. I'm not supposed to click on them, so I won't. But the question is, why can't I click on the ads I'm serving up to readers too? If I am interested in the product or service or whatever. Oh, well, seems to be one of those blog mysteries. But don't let that stop you from clicking on them all. Don't worry, you don't have to buy anything, it's okay to look. It's because we don't read newspapers anymore. Or watch the ads on TV.