Lately

I am something of a news junkie, or rather I am a seeker of truth. There you go, in the 21st century we'll be able to read news stories as they happen everywhere in the world! So I do. And I find that the world I thought I lived in, the world of America the democratic republic with the mandate to rule the world, is even more disgusting. Our boys in green are collecting souvenirs in Afghanistan. Do you know where that is or anything about it's history? Let me briefly clue you in on a good thing to know: barbarians are not at the gate, they are in your mind. So we have our boys in green collecting fingers for necklaces (like in the movies) and skulls, maybe to make a goblet out of (like in the movies). I suppose we needn't become alarmed until they start peeling the tattoos off the dead for lampshades, I guess. We're still better than somebody in the past. What about Genghis Khan? Well, what about him? Wasn't he a barbarian who cut off heads and took body parts as trophies? Yup. Where did he do all that? Mongolia and places west during his takeover of much of the known world. OH, and Afghanistan. He didn't last very long there, nobody does.

The poppy crop is down, the CIA will be very disappointed. There goes their Xmas bonuses. It wasn't because we burned the crops, oh no. Mother Nature brought over a fungus which killed half the plants. We were trying to save the crop so the government would have a nice source of income. Lord knows they can't export rocks. OH wait! They can. We now have a great reason for our boys in green to be killing and collecting: mineral wealth. We just read a decades old report from the Russians, who also failed to conquer Afghanistan by force of arms. Seems Afghanistan is lousy with mineral wealth of the particular type of mineral wealth which makes computers possible. So we ain't never going to go away. That means in the future there will be a small market in body parts collected by Americans as they won the hearts and minds of the Afghan people.Like how in America 2075 poor folks have to sell kidneys in order to get served at Health Care Inc. It's a small but important part of our future economy.

The My Lai  massacre led to the failing of the American delusion that we were the "good guys". We have never been the good guys so long as our cars drive across the graves of the natives who we massacred for over 300 years to take and hold their dirt and the stuff underneath it. Of course they never had ownership of that dirt, it was sort of a caretaker position. Now we own the damn Earth and we will drill and burn and excavate until the last useful rock is melted, smelted and purified into liquid Plutonium for our furnaces. But if there are enough of the Aghan version of My Lai around, enough necklaces of fingers, ears, skulls, rape stories told over at Joe's Bar after a few beers, maybe people will see that supporting the "bad guys" makes us bad guys. Makes us targets for the real "good guys", the ones avenging dead sisters, dead sons, dead parents. We have been hit a bit, but the blood still flows so we can expect another, soon. Unless...

Unless somewhere there is in America a "lawyer" who actually believes in the Rule of Law and he arrests the previous administration and issues a warrant for this administration for crimes against humanity and war crimes, we have no way out but to tear their houses down and send them all to the World Court. Then we will be the "good guys" and we can hold our heads up in international waters.

Do the world a huge favor and if a buddy, a brother or a sister tells you that they have a necklace of fingers, go to the police, the FBI, and the press and see to it that others know about it. If we actually act like people with ethics and morals perhaps the next sky scrapers to fall will do so to build a multi-cultural center where people can learn about people in other lands, with other religions and the same love and respect for human life.

Colors

If you look at the house we seem surrounded by a golden cloud. It's the Jewel weed, mostly. That's about chest high and somewhat golden orange with spots and speckles. It trembles with the beating wings of the hummingbird checking out each bloom. Sometimes the shaking of the flowers causes the seed pods to pop, reminding me of the other name for the Jewel weed: "Touch-me-not".Great fun to watch them curl and scatter their seeds. Mixed in with the Jewel weed is Goldenrod and there are many kinds. Some have a huge single clump of bright golden fluff while other weeds have multiple heads, smaller but more exciting. They look like golden fireworks. Down the way we have many sunflowers, giant grey striped sunflowers and dozens of Jerusalem artichokes. I have actually pulled a few and examined the little tubers, like water chestnuts. They seem like the kind of food a wild man must eat, like Solomon's seal and bolete mushrooms. A lot of the yard is edible.

The flowers that I bought and are hanging from the front of the house are dead and dried, whereas the colorful weeds and volunteers are big and beautiful. The golden cloud around the house continues to the rear and is mixed in with the pinks and lavenders. This time of year we have one or two bright fuchsia roses growing next to the funny Turtleheads, whose pouty mouths grump in four directions. They are as much fun as snapdragons, which oddly enough don't like to grow here. Too many competitors I guess. There are maybe a half dozen lilacs of various shades growing flowerless in the late summer morning. Each year I am surprised by the increasing size and volume of flowers on the lilacs. Another shock is the wandering and misnamed Obedience Plant. Half the one bed is covered in pink flowers and spiky leaves. I have long since forgotten where I first planted them. They struggle with an un-named weed whose nasty stickers are a handful all the way onto the roots. It has small flowers which are not pretty enough to forgive the pricks over but whose roots apparently have wandered all over the beds. I pull them up by the handfuls and they come back nastier. I suppose I should boil and eat them just to scare them away but we can't be sure if they are poisonous or not. It's a desperate plan developed from an observation that certain weeds become less intrusive once I realize a use for them. The valerian root is great for back pain, so now they grow in more attractive groupings where the wonderful scent of the pinkish flowers can startle and delight the walker by.

An odd yellow surprise are the number of squash plants which not only volunteered to grow this year, but who volunteered to grow in funny places, like out by the well head, near the garden path, and of course where the old compost heap used to be. I expected either tomatoes or squash and got them both. the pumpkins gave us two fruit, both big enough to carve or small enough to eat. The blue Hubbard squash was planted from a packet of seeds last year and has come back to haunt me this year. It overran the path to the hammock and wandered over the obedience plants, mixing it up with the evil prick weed. yet all the plants manage to get along better than the residents of New York City do when politics are in the air. Two avocado trees from the compost have sprouted and are about a foot and a half. that's still a far cry from the ten foot tree we grew last year. I had it in a pot and eventually the head was so tall I had to move it to the deck, where the cold autumn air finally got to it. Let's see how the twins do this winter.

The Goldfinches have found the Jerusalem artichokes and are picking away at the flowers. They leap from choke to sunflower to chicory, looking for all the world like animated sunflowers. Over their shoulders is the more thorough hummingbird buzzing from the hibiscus to the Jewel weed, one flower at a time. After putting up the hummingbird feeder I am startled to find a little hummer poised in the air about two feet from my face, examining my features and perhaps evaluating my intent. She buzzes off, satisfied that the feeder is safe enough and later she comes by to see if it is, and it is safe and tasty. But as she sips a male comes by, chipping and buzzing, slamming her in the air and chasing her off. Then the male goes over to the hibiscus plant to sip and watch the feeder. I'm not sure why he doesn't just feed at the feeder or share the hibiscus, but that's hummers for you, too busy to think.