Making a house a home

The House Wrens are busy making a nest for another year in one of their favorite houses around the garden. Mr. Wren sings as he works and Jenny is always close by. They let me get very close, I'm honored to be so trusted.

If you would like to see the first sticks going in you can check this series.

I also saw the first dragonfly of the season resting on a French Lilac bloom, you can see it in the extras. I've nearly used  all my extras up once again, I'll have to go back and delete some I've posted.

The Lecture last night with Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, authors of  "How Democracies Die" was fascinating. What worries the authors about our American democracy at the moment is our extreme polarization. It's one factor underlying most democratic breakdowns. We're not at an extreme level like Spain in the 1930s yet, but it's a troubling problem. The older the democracy, the better the chance for survival, so we have that in our favor. They argue that the threat to our democracy dates back 20 years to Newt Gingrich who promoted polarization, but it didn't begin with him. The intense partisan polarization we have now is fostering the erosion of our political norms. Each side responds back and forth and more breakdown occurs. 

We must vote, remain committed to economic equality for all and defend our democratic institutions. Civic education needs to return to schools, something that Massachusetts is committed to. The Parkland students are a prime example, civic knowledge is indeed power, even in extreme grief.


For the Record, 
This day came in sunny and warm.


All hands loving the return of our summer birds. Still no Catbirds:(










For