Monuments

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Our esteemed leader announced that there will be fines and jail time for anyone defacing or destroying monuments, in the wake of protesters toppling monuments with racial connotations.

Yet within the last month, the President has dismantled an enormous marine monument.  During his administration many National monuments have been reduced in size, or lost protections. (Bear's Ears being a good example)

Those National monuments were set aside for all people, to protect sensitive environment, habitat, endangered species, and archaeological as well as spiritual sites.

It is unclear why hundreds desiring the removal of statues of persons who promoted slavery are deserving of punishment, but  one person can single -handedly  undo protected spaces for the benefit of CEO's of large corporations.

Where's the justice?

Astrology

I enjoy reading this website every week:

https://www.hareinthemoonastrology.co.uk/weekly-forecasts

Some weeks she takes a holiday

If you would like to know how your personal chart fits with any specifics she mentions, here is a link to a free astrological chart that plots the positions of the planets at the time of your birth:

https://alabe.com/freechart/

Namaste!

Summer Solstice

The Solstice is almost upon us.  While my calendar shows it as "the first day of Summer", it is also known as "Midsummer night's Eve".

We may experience our hottest day of the year today, forecast for the 90's.  After freezing for six months, you won't hear any complaints from this southern girl, although the air is already thick and sticky at 8 am as I type this.

I have been waiting for the fireflies.  Last night I stepped out into the gloaming and was rewarded with the light show that is the mating call of the local fireflies.  They are abundant here, and a walk barefoot down the drive in shorts and a tank top at 9 pm, surrounded by the drifting lights of fireflies, I surely felt like I was living in fairyland.

Perversely, the news I get over the air and internet is an ugly contrast.  Immigrants being referred to as 'not human, but animals", our elections being sold out to China to secure the vote of the farm belt, open denial of a global pandemic-everyday brings another jaw dropping moment.

The behavior of our supposed leader has a trickle down effect that expands like a terminal cancer. 

We ventured out on a stock up run yesterday, and despite the governor's mandate that masks be worn, the corporate grocery chain Hannaford has chosen not to follow it. 

While the local Walmart has clearly posted signs saying masks need to be worn unless you have a medical condition-an easy out for the deniers since no proof of same condition is required, Hannaford corp doesn't care.

They have taken measures to make sure you have to go down every aisle, by putting directional arrows on the aisle floors.  I find that if I follow the arrows I spend twice as much time in the store, making the store more crowded and creating a longer time frame for possible exposure and giving those not wearing masks more opportunity to spew virus over the store.

To add insult to injury, a large sign directs the customer to carts which are proclaimed to be "all sanitized", yet I watched an employee retrieve carts from the corral and stick them straight into the cart queue. Since the carts are gathered handles in and returned handles out, the next cart to be taken will be the most recent cart left in the corral, which is especially bad, as any contamination will be fresh.  Exposure to UV and drying air will be minimal

At another Hannaford (it's a long story about why I had to stop at two). they were sanitizing the carts, but the employee at the front of the store (supposedly counting patrons to limit density) offered me a cart.  She was not wearing a mask or gloves-just a faceshield.  She was wearing shorts.  On the way back out I saw her hand on her leg.

If she was asymptomatic positive, she was potentially contaminating the cart handles for everyone entering the store, after we are assured the carts are "sanitized".

I wonder if Hannaford can spell social accountability?

Wildlife observations

We finally had a little bit of rain after a dry stretch of several weeks.

On my morning stroll down the drive, I was surprised to see two large groups of Tiger swallowtails drinking moisture out of the dirt.  I counted at least 25 in the two groups.  Then I turned onto the road and saw three more groups of at least another 25 along the road.

This is an annual event;typically they are on the other side of the road in much smaller numbers.  So I am glad to report the Tiger swallowtail population is thriving despite our being flanked by neighbors on both sides who use pesticide.

The hot pink "Dame's Rocket" has lived up to its name and spread like a rocket (over the last twenty years} in the lower garden by the chicken coop.  The patch is probably about ten by twenty feet and was loaded with Tiger Swallowtail today, perhaps as many as twenty.  There was a group of three that were following each other around through the yard.


I have seen a large amount of another caterpillar that looks quite similar to "tent caterpillars" or gypsy moths.  I do my best to destroy any tent caterpillar nests along the road that I find-they are an invasive species and can devastate fruit trees overnight.

I wasn't sure what this other caterpillar was, so I looked it up.  Imagine my horror when I realized it was the dreaded browntailed moth, another invasive species, this one with toxic hairs that can persist in leaves and vegetation, causing a hive like reaction when they come into contact with skin, as well as respiratory distress if inhaled.  Sort of like an invisible travelling poison ivy.

The moisture also kicked to life the blood sucking insects-mosquitoes and black flies.

I would prefer to live outdoors this time of year-just drinking in the blossoms of the flowers that have taken years to naturalize, but all of a sudden I have developed sensitivity to something.  I have several bite marks on my face and neck that swelled up like little balloons-itchy  irritating balloons.

Today I raked out the goose pen.  We are down to one gander, Pluto.  He turned into a total ass this spring during breeding season, and started going after me.  If he latched on, he would beat the crap out of my shins with his wings.  I put up with that far too long-I hated to lock him up when his puddle was full of fresh spring water and the tender green shoots were there for grazing.

But then when he started using my quasi hugel beds for an afternoon snooze and tromping through the growing bearded iris, that was the last straw.  He has been on lockdown (he has a rather nice pen next to the goats, so don't think me too cruel) for at least a month, and most of that time even feeding or watering him was a challenge. 

I guess by now any little goslings would be going out on their own, because he has finally become less of a terrifying ogre and I was able to get in his pen and rake up the leaves which he loves to fill his bathtub with-in about an hour-

We have pondered why he fouls his bathtub-if its like a kid with rubber duckies or just out of boredom?  While he has been getting a bucket of fresh water everyday with his daily ration, his tub has been more of a challenge.

I figured if I could clean up some of his "toys" his water would stay clean longer. Think of kids in a wading pool after you mow the grass...

So dodging the biting insects, which really get enraged when you start raking leaves that have been soaking in a goose tub, I dragged several large buckets down to the potato bed and the Willow helped lug the water buckets to give him a clean tub.

The hummingbirds have been hitting the feeder hard.  We have only one species here:  Ruby throated hummingbirds.  I saw three females bickering before each finding a place at the feeder, and so far have seen just one male.  We have a lot of flowers they would like-occasionally I see them on the geranium or petunias, but for now sugar water is the main attraction.   Later in the season the jewelweed- which has taken over one side of the long drive and along with the moneywort would like to take over the world- becomes a favorite for both the hummers and the several species of bumblebees that call our garden home.

we were thrilled to see a porcupine climbing the big elm over the hill a few evenings ago.  I wondered if it was the now grown baby who followed his Momma back and forth last summer.  She got hit and was left in the middle of the road last summer-I took a shovel and broom and moved her off to the side.

A few days later I was walking further up the road and saw the baby hiding in a small rock pile along the road. (sad face)  I really like porcupines and had a chance to observe one grazing at less than ten feet two summers ago.  It would hold the weed very carefully with its long claws and nibble the leaves off the stem.

I like porcupines even though I have had many dogs end up quilled, one requiring a trip to the doggie version of the ER.  Most people here hate them for that reason, and others, so it was a treat to see we have at least one in the area. 

Exceptthat one of my zuccini plants looked like it had been run over by a porcupine last night-and I only have two plants this year trying to avoid the zuccini epidemic that hits in August. 

Welcome to June in Maine.

A different Version

We are in  movie mode here, watching some new ones and revisiting old favorites.

I recently drew some sililarities to current events and The Hunger Games.

After revisiting The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I thought current events were like what would have happened to Middle Earth if things had gone awry for Bilbo in the very beginning.

Wormtongue=Kushner
King Theoden=Trump
Eowyn (corrupted)=Ivanka
Gandalf=Bernie
Radagast= Joe Biden
Sauraman=McConnell
Smaug=Mnuchin
Hobbits=the downtrodden little people

Ruined Shire=our wild places

The Elves would probably have left, but you could stretch and add
Galadriel=Pelosi
Elrond=Schumer

Supreme Court Justices=Eagles or Nazgul, as appropriate

Sauron= who knows, he has the one ring and is invisible

Given a little thought, substitutes for other characters might also be found, I will leave that to your imagination!

Wildlife Protections gutted

Despite a global shutdown due to the pandemic, Mauna Loa observatory recorded the highest atmospheric CO2 levels in May since record keeping began.

Once in the atmosphere, CO2 is persistent.  May is usually the highest reading of the year because plants and trees growing in the Northern Hemisphere start to absorb and store CO2.

However, with regulations being gutted in favor of economics, our forest loss by volume is steadily increasing.

Over 25,000 nesting shorebirds are losing habitat on the Atlantic coast to an infrastructure project.

The Department of the Interior in conjunction with DIFW has gutted the migratory bird act, eliminating any repercussions to industry that causes migratory bird loss-such as birds landing in open pits of chemicals.

The icing on the cake was seeing a live stream yesterday of Trump allowing commercial fishing in one of only three protected marine environments-

"Is that what you want?" he addressed a fisherman representative.

DId he ask the protesters what they want?  One wealthy white male meets with him and asks him to remove protections from an area , and it's done.

Millions of people asking for justice, and they are ignored.

He has the gall to sit in our great state and call our governor a dictator and claim "SHE doesn't know what she is doing"

Maybe it's time to look in the mirror.

People are not dispensable

Human beings are lifeforms, as much as any lifeform on this planet. while we are all horrified at the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a fundamentalist right wing conservative, we can be thankful we were not subjected to the skinning and sale of his skin for human consumption.

Because he was treated like an animal, animals such as the wildlife that is "harvested"  by persons that live on the profits of the sale of pelts for their own hobby or enjoyment, feeling like they are doing the public a "service" by eliminating and controlling a population they feel is extraneous.

I want to comment on what happened to peaceful demonstrators in Lafayette park yesterday, so a troop of whites could get a photo op with a bible against the belief of the church bishop who decried the action as against the teachings of Jesus.

Or the battering and beating of Australian journalists cowering behind a wall as the wall driving out protesters-peaceful protesters-advanced, or so I shall, retreated-while our smug commander in chief crowed like a cock.

Or to highfive my governor Janet Mills. for growing a pair and telling himself he is NOT wanted in our state, while helicopters and jets are commuting the necessary secret service and commandos into place for his visit to the county where he accrued the largest percentage of votes in the state in 2016 at 58%.

While I am glad that I live in the middle of nowhere safe from the justified protests, I find myself surrounded by redneck pickups brandishing rifles racing up and down the road in pursuit of the "evil" coyote, flanked by neighbors with Trump election signs and waving confederate flags-who in this country is really safe?

Hunger Games

If you have ever watched the Hunger Games, you may agree that the events that are unfolding are eerily similar to the armed crackdown that happens when the districts start protesting how they are governed.

One has to wonder why it was acceptable for people to carry weapons into a state capital building to protest the governor's handling of the pandemic, but violent force is used against peaceful protesters, including the press.

While some might howl about their right to bear arms, how about freedom of the press, the right to peaceably assemble-and the basic human right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness?

BY the way, the right to bear arms has already been curtailed so there is precedent to ban military style assault weapons-just look up the definition of "arms".

Yet factions prone to violence are supported and those seeking peace and justice are subjugated?

  The World is upside down.