The Tall and the Short of It

I can honestly say that there are virtually no flowers left in the garden that I haven't already photographed many times. Instead I offer this picture of two friends who came into Trail House for their coffee and then walked off down the street together. I could do a whole series on people who walk past or come into the trail House.

Last night we watched most of the final public hearing of the summer presented by the House Committee Investigating the Jan. 6th. Insurrection. I have avoided the news as much as I can, but I find these hearings to be well produced and very compelling. 

There really are no words to write about how shocking it is to hear about a man, who knowing that some of the the mob was made up of armed, right wing militias, sent them to the capitol and watched them on television from the White House dining room for three hours as they broke into the building and swarmed through the halls, threatening to kill the legislators who were crouching under their chairs in the congressional chambers. Despite the pleas of family members, advisors, lawyers and friends he did nothing other than to incite the mob to 'hang Mike Pence'.

What is even more shocking is that every article I read ends with something like,'The Congress doesn't have the power to indict him and the justice department has never indicted a president.' Many of the people who were featured begging Trump to call off the mob are now pretending like it was just a 'peaceful protest'. Some who participated in the riot have run in and won Republican primary elections...

When I begin to question my own sanity, I turn my attention to an article about a local man who rents chickens. He provides a portable coop, a drip feeding/water system, food and two chickens on a monthly basis. He says chickens are wonderful pets, very funny, and he hopes that this will get people interested in raising them. I'm sure my friend Tobi would agree with him 100%. 

Another article that raised my hopes was about a man who has made a very effective fire retardant spray made of food grade ingredients that can be sprayed around homes and gardens. He demonstrated it for interested members of the public and representatives from fire departments. The pink stuff they currently use has to be dumped from a plane or helicopter, makes a mess and dries in place. The big question is how his solution will respond to a wind driven wildfire, but it is heartening to see people working to solve seemingly unsolvable problems....anything to give some semblance of a sense of control....

We have tidied up the garden, moved the big umbrella to a better location relative to the sun (well, David did as it is bolted into the ground and rearranged the furniture in anticipation of our congenial 'dinner group'. But it still seems pretty hot outside so we may end up inside anyway....