WILD Close UP

The 16th Annual Wildflower show, nothing short of spectacular.

Teams began gathering yesterday (Friday 4/26 and finished up this morning)

Somewhere between 400-500 individual specimens, all gathered from this area. 

Enjoy a few of them, thanks to the Friends of the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve.

 

This is one of the reasons Cambria is a hiker's paradise.

See you down the trail.

A Bipartisan Win Puts MAGA on the Ropes

 

        The view is clear. Bipartisan works.

        American citizens and the perception of us around the world got a measure of grace when a bi-partisan coalition passed a package of national security programs.

         112 Republicans, the MAGA extremists, have been pro Putin obstructionists taking their orders from the Russian patsy Trump. They were beaten up when Democrats and 101 Republicans declared 311-112 that vital aid would be sent to Ukraine as the suffering nation endures Putin’s brutality, war crimes and attempt to destroy the nation.

 

        There was a time in America when traitorous notions like those of MAGA would be scorned and efforts would be undertaken to drum them out of government. Today they openly avow to break the democratic republic while their master sits in criminal court facing the first many felony charges. Bi-partisanship came to the rescue and again reminded us that when reason prevails, congress can be effective. 

        The MAGA crowd has taken a hit. Not yet washed up, but foundering. Republican leaders say they have fallen prey to Russian propaganda and may be losing power. Trump is weakened as he sits in a courtroom and hears the accusations spoken. He’s left to whine to cameras and it’s an old act. His night time rallies, where he is bathed in make up and hidden beneath a red cap, are stale refrains increasingly punctuated with verbal slips and obsure riffs that have caused professionals to question if his cognitive skills are in steep decline. He is an out shape aging man play acting like a tough guy. He is tough only to the coop of low lifes, bullies and sleaze who are the MAGA caucus who readily go to their knees for him. 

        This vote and bi-partisan majority isolates how out of touch MAGA is with most Americans on national security. 

        And what do the crimes against humanity gang in Russia say? Here's a quote from 

 DmitryMedvedev after the vote to send more aid to Ukraine-something he counted on the Republicans blocking...

    "...I can't help but wish the USA with all sincerity to dive into a new civil war themselves as quickly as possible. Which, I hope, will be very different from the war between North an South in the 19th century and will be waged using aircraft, tanks, artillery, MLRS, all types of missiles and other weapons. And which will finally lead to the inglorious collapse of the vile evil empire of the 21st century-the United States of America."

        That is pretty much the sentiment of the MAGA crime syndicate. Why any American, despite how right wing they may be, can support the anti-American MAGA is beyond me. Brain washing, blind zeal and old fashioned stupidity are evidently Republican tools of the trade. 

    

        Stay informed. Stay free. Act like it.

        See you down the trail.

The Quantum Nap

        Is it my reading and viewing list, or have you too noted there's a lot of recent information out there about quantum physics, quantum computing and how things quantum make the potential of "multiverses" something more than fodder for science fiction?

        It's all a push for my pragmatic sense of things and my hard headed desire to "understand." 

        A recent science article and an Apple television series had me puzzling through the idea of "alternative realities" when the moon shadows seized my attention. I grabbed a camera and got a frame of myself standing on our upper deck, in the world of shadows. I haven't worked out how the distant Pacific surf may have sounded in that shadow universe, nor do I know what would become of that shadow reality if I, or someone, had not seen, observed or photographed it.

        What marvelous riddles, and possibilities there are!  And what potential there is for those to whom the future belongs. Still, there is that nagging human problem about learning-learning from our past and from our frequently misguided ways.

        But for now, a deep dive into the present here on the California central coast and in Lana's garden, all, appreciative of the season's rain.  
 

Is it one or many?

           The peas are growing well. 

         Lana complains the hillside is too full of weeds-she has had back issues and her weed eradication effort has been slowed. I continue my more than half a century protest that weeds are also life and provide their own contributions to the blue sphere. Alternate realities, eh? But Green is green.

        Our youngest of the brood, Sunny is enjoying the return of the Sun...     

The old tiger gal, Joy, is particularly taken with the beds near the front walk

    And the old boy Hemingway, our polydactyl, would be Garfield, does what he enjoys most, next to eating. Naps tend to make a lot of sense to me these days as well.

    Madmen still make war, a taste for power has driven a whole political cult into a trance of stupefaction and insensibility, and we've unleashed machine learning and artificial intelligence experiments on our children. Phones, screens and social media are rewiring our brains and undoing society. 

    It's like the meme, "Here hold my beer"  while we blindly jump into the next thing, never mind we have forgotten the word consequence and the mere idea of forethought.

    Yea, naps are a good alternative reality.

          Summon your wits good people, gird your loins and activate that life of experience and learning. 

        Our hand are no longer on the throttles of power, but we have voice and a vote and we are still to be reckoned with. There are facts to note, truth to tell and a Republic to defend between now and November. 

        We know this drill, we can still answer the call, and we'll be effective, if we take our nap and remember our meds. 

        Be of good cheer, we have the cosmos and eternity set in our hearts.

        See you down the trail.