Garden Update

Well, sorry about no posting recently but I was waiting for a nice day to shoot a garden update video.  It took a spell for the nice day to materialize...  On Thursday we had a really nice sun break - lasted for about 8 hours.  It was OK yesterday but by last evening the rain was starting to fall and this morning we're back to rain AND wind. And the weather forecast is not encouraging for this next week. Sigh...

Crappy weather notwithstanding it has been a serious gardening week.  I spent a couple of days helping Alison rehabilitate a flower bed that had become overgrown over a period of many years and it proved to be more of a challenge than I had thought.  Serious pick-and-shovel work.  But then again, that's my specialty in terms of both competence and temperament.  I do believe Alison was well pleased with the result.

I also did a fair amount of planting and puttering here in my own yard.  Serious fun.

Last weekend we did manage a nice walk out by Dredge Lake.  Got a couple of decent pics of a Townsend's Warbler.

Townsend's Warbler...

...an elusive little bugger. 

And here is the garden update video:

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone!

Best Bird Day this Spring

Still mighty chilly.  Think the high at the airport was around 44 degrees today.  Ugh.

But that did not stop Alison and I from legging-it-out North Douglas to Fish Creek where we saw a number of our feathered friends including a couple I had not previously recognized.

I THINK this is an American Golden-Plover

Sure about these guys - a Whimbrel and Ruddy Turnstones

There were at least three breeding pair of Red-breasted Sapsuckers

We thought this was a Fox Sparrow...

...but my photo has convinced me we've got a Hermit Thrush

Maddy accompanied us on the walk and she continues to discover her inner dog.  She's becoming quite the walking trouper.

Later gang!

Tribulations

A very sorry and soggy week.  As I type, the rain is falling and the wind is whipping said rain into my window frame at what I estimate to be 40 MPH.  This is consistent with the weather forecast...and is the forecast for the next 24 hours.  So there you have it weatherwise...

It's seriously depressing.  I want to be working in the yard.  But sideways rain and a temperature in the low 40's is not conducive to outdoor activity.  In fact, I just won't go outdoors if I can help it. And the dogs feel the same way...

I was even more depressed when my oven went gunnysack yesterday.  I was in the middle of baking my roomie's birthday cheesecake.  The oven went from "bake" to "broil" of its own volition.  Not good for the cheesecake.  Then it started this beeping "must clean" thing.  And I could not shut if off.  So...to make a long and depressing story short...I am soon to be the owner of a brand new Jenn-Air oven.

I never particularly wanted a Jenn-Air - but apparently they have some very talented patent attorneys who have managed to lock-up the oven down-draft technology.  I did not request or desire a downdraft system but I have inherited one.  Kudos to the Jenn-Air legal department, I guess...  I'm sure the new stove will be lovely - and it damn well better be considering what I'm paying.

Our tourist season is now underway.  But the inclement weather is causing problems - Mr. E. Swanson reports that all whale watching trips were cancelled today.  With winds to 40 knots one can understand the cancellation.  When I hear "there she blows" I want it to refer to a whale as opposed to the middle-aged gal next to me blowing chunks.

I could make some political comments - Mitt the bully or banks too large to fail that might fail - but I'm just not inclined at the moment.

And I don't have any interesting new pics.  HOWEVER, for Juneau folks, I did learn something interesting this week.  I took a canvas in to my life-long friend  John Chapman, of Picture This, to have it framed, and he told me about a guy on Seward Street who can print photos on canvas.  I immediately legged it up to said locale for a look-see. The man appears legit and offers consultations, i.e. we can do test prints before a final print.  I will not mention his name or business 'till I try it out.

In the meantime, here's the print that John is framing for me.

 It will hang on my living room wall.  Took it in about 2006 and I still love it.

Tomorrow morning I will be picking-up trash as part of our local picking-up trash day thing.

Shalom.

The New Inquisition

Hot off the press...or more accurately...recently received via the internet machine...  It's the Urban Cowgirls!

My nose is HUGELY out-of-joint due to my failure to attend the Big Island festivities of the past week.  Golf, dinners, brunches and now horse back riding by some of my best friends.  And they seem to be enjoying themselves.  WITHOUT ME!

Exemplia gratia:

I got spurs that jingle, jangle, jingle

They said "oafs" not "oats" you four-legged fools!   

In other news, my resentment about not being in Hawaii with my pals is compounded by the weather forecast which is truly crappy.  Tomorrow we are slated for southeast winds to 45 mph with rain - heavy at times.  This is an OCTOBER forecast for god's sake....

So, time to vent.  And I've been building one up...

I have, from time to time, said some pretty nasty things about the Catholic Church.  I have done so - always with trepidation - because I have immense and genuine respect for many Catholic affiliated institutions that provide critical and very high quality services to all Americans.  Church affiliated health care and education has always been part of the backbone of American life.  And I have many devout Catholic friends who validate their faith by acts of kindness and volunteerism.  A good number of them put me to shame in that regard.

Nevertheless, I find the Church leadership disgusting and absurd.

I bit my tongue last month when the Pontiff threw American nuns under the bus and appointed an Inquisitor to root-out the disobedient.  As near as I can tell from the press accounts, the disobedience consists primarily of endorsing our nation's new health care law and not being sufficiently abusive of homosexuals and women who seek family planning services.

What put me over the top, however, was the story I read yesterday in the New York Times regarding Cardinal Sean Brady of Ireland.

It is my strongly held belief, based on everything that I have read on the subject, that Cardinal Brady is representative of a very large portion of the Catholic clergy ordained prior to the VERY late years of the past century - most of whom  had very concrete reasons to know or suspect that the rape or other sexual abuse of children by priests was an all too common occurrence.

Some are calling on Cardinal Brady to resign.  His particular public relations problem is that as a young priest he served as scribe (some say this understates his role) at a 1975 internal Church inquiry regarding a pedophile priest who was subsequently passed around the country from parish to parish to continue to rape and abuse children.   The future Cardinal Brady, like virtually every other Church official in Ireland at the time, didn't think there was anything going on here worth reporting to the secular authorities.

All the principals of that particular case are dead or have signed confidentiality (settlement) agreements with the Church.

This is all depressingly familiar.  BUT WHAT GOT MY GOAT was the immediate reaction of the Vatican to the calls for Cardinal Brady's resignation:

Following the program, the church was quick to defend the cardinal. In a statement it said that in 1975 “no State or church guidelines for responding to allegations of child abuse existed in Ireland.”

On Wednesday, a Vatican official, Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, told Ireland’s national radio RTE that Cardinal Brady had “fulfilled his duties well.” He said the church in Ireland needed leaders who had “learned the hard way and are determined to protect children.” He qualified this afterward, saying: “They have learned because they have realized that you have to act immediately.” 

 So there you have it, no state or Church guidelines about reporting CHILD RAPE AND MOLESTATION so no foul. And since he's so familiar with CHILD RAPE AND MOLESTATION he now realizes it's important.

I can well understand why the Vatican cannot allow Cardinal Brady to resign because his resignation might well call into question the legitimacy of the ENTIRE Church leadership.  

It's not my place to hold that leadership accountable (if it was, they'd have been under the bus a long time ago).

Accountability is the job of my Catholic friends or God.  And I don't believe in God.

How Does My Garden Grow? Not Great - It's Too Damn Cold

Well, after a very disturbing wet and cold spell I awoke to sunshine streaming through the window this morning.  Didn't waste any time getting out to enjoy it either.  Spent most of the day in the garden.

Today's project involved building a very short french drain to direct water from my newly installed drain spout away from the house.  Also put in some paving stones, edging stones and some rubber mulch - never used the stuff before so I'm curious to see how it holds up.  Even bought my first plants for what I hope, over time, will be a fairly spectacular rock garden.

So...a few garden pics showing progress thus far:

Note my new gutters and down spouts

 The apex of my carpentry skills - three rectangular boxes

Walkway above the rock garden...before

...and after

In other news, I received the picture below from Mr. D. Rickey documenting a Juneau reunion of sorts held on the Big Island the other evening.  The crew seems rather subdued...too much sun...or perhaps they are all reflecting on the absence of a dear friend - ME!  Present from left to right D. Rickey, A. Elgee, J. Kibby, T. Harrigan, J. Ellis, L. Smith and T. Cutler. 

Current and former Juneauites rendezvous in Hawaii.  Damn I wish I had been there!

Well, just checked the updated weather forecast.  Decent tomorrow and then rain, rain, rain for a week.  Snow level 1300 feet tomorrow.  Ugh!  Still, after 56 years in this burg I reckon I won't melt in the rain..

Later gang!