no shows and no decency

Front flower bed with Cat, can you see her in there?

I just noticed that half my coral butterfly ginger did not come back. There's a big space where they should be. The cone flower ginger that Mary Moon sent me two years ago has also not come back. The bougainvillea has not sent up any new growth yet but I still have hopes for it but the gardenia is covered in new growth after I pruned it back hard. More than half of my poor struggling camellia that has been plagued with white fly died and the new growth is sparse. The main branch of the white orchid tree in a pot that I did not bring in but put in a protected corner and covered it more or less died but has new growth on the lower small branches and I already mentioned the althea that died. The old fashioned yesterday-today-and-tomorrow has finally sent up some new growth from its roots. Next winter I'll have to remember to cover it. And I've already mentioned that I'm not getting any larkspur or poppies either. On the wild side, I'm finally getting some dandelions in the yard but the lots on either side of me are covered in blooms. I've mentioned no woodland violets either when last year they bloomed profusely but also no chickweed, which is kind of astounding really, and no henbit.

One more picture of the 12 acre field behind me covered in indian paintbrush. As good as the iPhone 13 camera is, it just cannot capture the true depth of field (or it could be the photographer). The flowers look like a narrow strip when in fact they cover a good 8 or 9 acres (hard to judge) solid with color.

We are finally getting some rain! A gentle to medium rain started falling straight down yesterday that cooled things down considerably (of course it did, I put all my long sleeve shirts away the day before) and it continued off and on the rest of the day and has continued today and supposed to tomorrow. Can't do any work outside so I'm working on clearing my big work table that has accumulated way too much stuff. Or being lazy. I'm doing a lot of that too.

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As I'm sure everyone is aware, Trump was finally indicted last Thursday and as Jeff Tiedrich so succinctly put it, “the entire wingnut outrage-industrial complex is melting straight the fuck down“. Trump turned himself in on Tuesday and was arrested in NYC and arraigned on 34 felony counts connected to the hush money paid porn star Stormy Daniels to which he pled not guilty at his arraignment. No mugshot was taken and no bail required to be released for white collar crimes (and gosh golly darn, no massive protest from the cult materialized), he returned to Florida later in the day. Before his release, the judge admonished him against any speech that might provoke violence against the people involved but that didn't stop Don Jr. from posting a picture of the DA's daughter and Trump later referred to the judge and his wife as Trump haters and has called for defunding the DOJ and the FBI. Also in state politics the far right election denier and vote suppressor republican candidate Dan Kelly was defeated for the Wisconsin supreme court by democrat Janet Protasiewicz, who promised to stand up for abortion rights and fair voting districts, giving democrats the majority on the court. The loser was, of course, angry and bitter in his concession speech saying “I wish that in a circumstance like this I would be able to concede to a worthy opponent, but I do not have a worthy opponent to which I can concede” calling her beneath contempt and a serial liar. Are there any republicans running for office that aren't complete assholes?

There is so much more underhandedness going on by republicans like expelling the three democrat lawmakers in the Tennessee legislature that backed the gun control protests after the most recent mass shooting there, a bill in Texas that will require the 10 commandments be posted in every classroom (which is about as ironic as it gets considering the complete lack of moral character in today's GOP) and replacing school counselors with pastors which is blatantly unconstitutional, passing a law in Kansas that requires genital inspection of kids who want to play sports as part of their trans ban, and their attempts to curtail college student voting after having finally snapped to the fact that GenZ is woke, organized, and voting but I can only deal with so much at a time. The more elections republicans lose, the more extreme they get in their attempt to impose 'christian nationalism' ie their particular brand of fascism on the nation at large and fuck the constitution.

Edit: Tennessee republicans voted to expel the two black legislators but did not expel the white one.