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Monthly Archives: June 2011

Know your farmer? Not if she can help it…

There is no creature in the U.S. Congress more vile, more black-hearted, more ignorant, and more determined to horse-whip us all back to the Dark Ages than Virginia Foxx. I am ashamed to say that she represents my district, the 5th District of North Carolina. She’s always up to no good, in service of corporate […]

Rain!

Several times in the last month I’ve watched on radar as storms in the area figured out all sorts of clever ways to miss me. They’d be headed straight at me, then fork into two so that one could miss me to the north, the other to the south. Or a storm would be headed […]

Parched rose

The roses are valiantly trying to bloom again in the hot, dry weather. The photo was taken at dusk.

Ken's photos from Alaska

I know that many of you readers have become fans of Ken Ilgunas, and some of you may be missing him as much as I am. He has posted some photos to his blog, but he has posted more photos to Facebook. Try friending him on Facebook to keep up with his photos. Just mention […]

A meteorologist's roundup of wretched weather

My ever-empty rain gauge The high temperature here today was 94 degrees. The normal for this date is 86. In the last month, I’ve had half an inch of rain. Lots of things are turning brown. Even the squash are wilting. High temperatures alone wouldn’t be so frightening, if there was rain. It’s the combination […]

Black-eyed susans

The black-eyed susans patch

Mobs?

Greece, this week (Der Spiegel) Yesterday, while browsing for books at Amazon, I came across the title of Ann Coulter’s newest book: Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America. I have long been a student of propaganda, but reading an Ann Coulter book is farther than I’ll go. Besides, ideologues like Coulter are easy […]

Some thoughts on E-readers

iPad 1, Kindle DX, and, above, my now obsolete Sony Reader Long have I craved an iPad and an Amazon Kindle. But there were things that the abbey, both house and grounds, needed much more. Luckily a friend in California took pity on me and gave me his iPad 1 and Kindle DX, for the […]

June = day lilies

[Link to high-res] If I had to pick a favorite flower, it would be the lily. Unless scent is the criterion, in which case I would pick gardenia or lilac. I have several varieties of day lilies, but I need more. The last photo is the common wild lily. It’s what I planted on my […]

Never turn your back on a cucumber vine

Three days’ worth, two cucumber vines Three days ago I picked all the cucumbers. I left no cucumbers over two inches long. I was in no hurry to go back, thinking that the weather was so dry that not much could be happening. But this morning there were oodles of cucumbers, and some of them […]