What Spring Looks Like Here

I took a tour around the yard after I finished mowing on Friday afternoon.  Of course in loading these to this post, blogger has put them in the reverse order that I took them.

So here's a forget me not along the driveway.  I got this from a neighbor a couple of years ago.  It has not spread like I want it to along the driveway.

Here's a look at the driveway edge that I'm working on reclaiming.  Our property line is along those standing stones, but I figure my neighbor won't mind my improvements edging into her property.  Those are her hemlock trees and 6 of them were taken down last fall.  You'll see other stumps  in the following photos.

Another look at the driveway edge closer to the barn.  We got our 2 cords of wood on Tuesday which Dan promptly stacked in the barn.  Usually we save the scraps for kindling but we had so much so I had him put some along the edge.

Here's where I have reclaimed the edge by planting an assortment of things from my garden beds: lily, Siberian iris, spider wort, violets, etc.  I still need to mulch this bed and then work to reclaim the upper part where the forget me not is.

Our trees are leafing out now.

Here's our backyard view of the hills behind us.  The pale green are the birches.

In the hosta bed this blue flower is taking center stage.  Help, I don't remember what it's called. Are they bluebells?

Here is the same plant from afar with other plants showing themselves.

Still have some daffodils just now blooming.

The myrtle is another one of the blue flowers this spring.

The sculpture bed needs a good weeding.

But here's what's blooming in this bed.  Another no name in my memory.  A gift last Mother's Day and quite the spreader.

It's tiny flowers are lovely close up.

Tom, the buglos (is that the right name?) you sent me are up and blooming. Here's #1.

#2

#3 with more blue flowers.

Last year I think the leaves were a lot bigger but maybe this is their spring size.

Another blue flowering plant.  I should know the name because someone remarked about it just on Monday.  But the name is gone for now. Another sort of wort?

In the front bed I love the color of this hosta.

I still can't explain why there is one pink tulip with 2 red/orange ones.  I thought I was planting all the same color.

Finally our house.  In honor of Memorial Day I set out my patriotic shutter.

And here's some good news for our drought conditions.  We had 2 inches of steady rain yesterday.  Much needed that I hope will offset our deficit.

Thanks for coming with me on my walk about.  Many blooms yet to come: iris, lupine, bleeding heart, day lilies, lilies, and much more. And pots of annuals to plant after the threat of frost is over.  I'll tackle those in June.

Excerpt from The Contrarian

 The response to Callais must be just as ferocious as the Supreme Court’s assault on voting rights. This is not simply an issue for the Congressional Black Caucus or the Democratic Party or one racial group. “This is an American crisis dressed up in colorblind language,” Brown reminded us. We do not have a true democracy when millions of Americans cannot elect representatives of their choice, or when a virtually all-white ruling class has a lock on office.

In the short run, Brown and other movement champions will organize massive voter registration drives, economic pressure campaigns against corporations that align themselves with White supremacy, and a voluminous communications effort to explain the stakes to all Americans. Engaging and turning out millions of new voters is the key to halting America’s descent into authoritarian, Jim Crow MAGA rule.

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Beyond November, Brown implores Americans to think big to meet the moment. “I am asking us to stop being incrementalists. Incrementalism assumes a system that operates in good faith. We do not have one.” Instead, she explained, “I am asking us to be the architects. The people who understand that we are building for a hundred years, not for one election or news cycle.”

She proposes, for example, “proportional representation with multimember districts and ranked choice voting, so that Black voters at 30% of a state’s population reliably elect 30% of its representatives.” In other words: “No districts to gerrymander. No maps for the Court to strike down.” Other proposals include election of the president by popular vote (via the National Popular Vote Compact), same day registration, a federal department dedicated to democracy protection, and Supreme Court reform. “We are the architects now, “ Brown reminds us. “Pick up the tools so that we become the founders of what is next to come.”

Callais is a calamity, but not one we must accept as the new normal. The MAGA court does not get to define American democracy. Their judicial abomination can and must be the impetus for Americans to seize control of their own future. As Janai Nelson put it: “It has always been the ordinary Americans who have bent the arc of this country toward justice — yes, on a bridge in Selma and at so many other places throughout history: a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina; a shirtwaist factory in New York City; a bar in Greenwich Village.” She and other civil rights veteran know that “collective power — the power of the people — will always be greater than the people in power.” She implore us not to “let Louisiana v Callais be the end of the story, the final chapter in a short-lived saga of a fledgling multiracial democracy.” The only question is whether we have the will to use our collective power.

Brown, Nelson, and their civil rights coalition partners remain undaunted, unafraid, and undeterred despite MAGA justices and lawmakers’ quest to undo 60 years of progress in achieving pluralistic democracy. They understand that mass political action is the answer to judicial Jim Crow and a reactionary movement rooted in White supremacy.

We salute the civil rights activists and “architects,” and urge all of you to join the movement to bring about a “new birth of freedom” that delivers on the promise of pluralistic democracy.

Wordless Wednesday

 Up early to capture our arrival at our first island of the Cyclades - Syros. 

Enjoy!

The Temple of Poseidon

 

This temple to Poseidon (ca. 440 B.C.) is at Cape Sounion.  We stopped here on our way to the port town of Lavrion on a very windy day.

The promontory drops more than 100 meters into the sea and is the first landfall in Athenian territory as one sails towards it from the Cyclades Islands. 

We stopped here to listen to Anastasia tells us about the ruins but you can see from her hair that the wind was really strong.  Later we learned it had been gale force winds.  We all had ear pieces to hear her narrate our tours.

I had to ask the question about how well those rock forms were balanced and how they could withstand these winds. I learned that they are not just resting there, but have holes and pegs holding them in place.

Over the years visitors have left their names scratched into the stones.  Lord Byron's name is purported to be on one of the columns inside.  We didn't get to go in the Temple, but you can see names in Greek on the stones below.

Listen to the wind in this short video.

This is Tommy, the resident photographer, taking photos throughout our trip.

We are windblown.

From here we returned to our warm bus for the ride to lunch and then the port where we met our ship for the rest of the trip.

We stayed another night here in port because the windy conditions would have resulted in really rough sailing.  The itinerary was changed as a result and the first island stop was nixed.  We made the others but in a different order.

Next stop Syros.