Springtime may bring thoughts of the garden. As usual we are late in our planning. Searching for plants to attract hummingbirds brought forth some very interesting “facts”. Apparently most plants suggested by many gardeners and bird enthusiasts to attract the tiny birds may be toxic to them. Beauty doesn’t mean friendly. I found five plants that are supposedly hummingbird safe.

Fuchsia
Columbine
Trumpet vine
Bee balm
Salvia

These sites note poisonous plants to avoid for a hummingbird safe garden. Rather puts a damper on doing the right thing in the garden for hummers. Chemicals produced in these plants may not be that harmful for hummingbirds still partake from this plants but now you know. Would they be healthier if they avoided these plants? Be more tolerant to the changes in climate? Not as simple as I thought. A conundrum.

positivebloom.com/toxic-plants…

wildbirdscoop.com/8-toxic-plan…

birdadvisors.com/hummingbird-p…

So be careful. Stand guard 24/7 to protect the birds and possibly numerous insects and mammals. Now looking for plants toxic to other pollinators which we should avoid.

#Hummingbird #Pollinators #Toxic #Plants #Gardening #Flowers #Chemicals #ClimateChange #Conundrum

I promised myself and wife I would not listen to, read or watch any political news for the next four years so as to keep my sanity and hers. Even with filters the Rump squeezes into my space. So I have embraced the circus with misgivings. There are atrocious happenings that are affecting individuals, companies, governments and policies. Hopefully this is just another blip in history. The consequences this time will truly change the world as we know it in innumerable ways. Some for the better as in new and stronger European alliances and new trading partners around the world. The environment will suffer. But there are individuals and organizations fighting hard to limit the damage being done on many fronts. They are heroes. For years I have said that the peak of USerlandia influence has been waning. The Rump has sped up the decline and even put several more nails in the coffin.
I watch this fiasco with a sadden heart but also at times sit back and chuckle at the greatest buffon the world has ever known. It is not a laughing matter but when given lemons make lemonade and spit the seeds back in his face.

#Politics #Abstinence #Environment #Heroes #Fiasco #Circus #Rump

(Catching up on things)
Many people remember when they heard that President Kennedy had been shot. I was in Language Arts class my junior year at Los Alamos High School. Just before noon there was a knock on the classroom door. Our teacher was summoned into the hall. A minute later she stumbled into the room with her hand on her breast saying “He’s been shot!” We all looked around at each other not knowing what was going on. I thought someone had been shot in the hall but I hadn’t heard any noise. Eventually she told us that the President had been shot. Since it was almost lunch period classes were dismissed and most of us wandered over to the cafeteria. Walter Conkrite's voice was piped into the room over the PA system. During lunch we learned of the tragedy in Dallas eventually realizing the President had died. I remember students filing outside sitting on the lawn and crying.
This was particularly difficult to process. JFK had visited the scientific labs and later our school in December of the previous year and had made such an impression on us. I remember listening to him at the football field. Seeing him and Vice President Johnson was so exciting. To see the President and such a vibrant man. His death deflated us.
I was in the front row of the crowd. It was so awesome when he came down and started to shake hands. I missed his hand but did touch his suit sleeve. A treasured moment. (See video minute 6:25 and beginning 10:00.)

The following weekend was so chaotic with the plane trip from Dallas to Washington, the bloody pink dress, the hunt for Oswald, his murder on camera by Ruby and then the state funeral including Black Jack the horse with boots reversed in the stirrups. The beautiful horse was a symbol of a fallen leader. We had a new President with both similar and new agenda(s). Talk about a gloomy November.

#November #JFK #JFKAssassination #HighSchool #LosAlamos #Autobiography

youtu.be/YatKDywQpQM?si=OtG6me…

2024 is coming to a close. The other evening I was looking back over the decades ending in the number four and realized that several of those decades were life changing for me. Another chapter in my haphazardly written autobiography.

1964 - In August my parents, my 14 y/o sister and I, a strapping youth of 17, moved from Los Alamos, NM to Kano the capital of Northern Nigeria. I was going to miss my senior year of high school and all the activities that year would bring. The following 12 months were one of the most amazing years I ever experienced.
Today is 4 December the 60th anniversary of the release the The Beatles' album Beatles for Sale on EMI's Parlophone label. Most likely my favorite Beatles album.
It was released just before the Christmas holiday. With large British population in Nigeria at the time there were many students returning home from the UK with lots of The Beatles' new album in their suitcases.
My parents and a number of other American educators were employed at the Kano Teachers Training College at the time. Most of those teachers lived in the American "compound". Soon after we moved in to our new California ranch style house I met the three young sisters living next door. One I got to know very well. Her older sister had become friends with a British boy earlier in the year who was returning home for the holidays. With him was Beatles for Sale.
The Kano County Club had a "children only evening". The music selection and dance floor was ours. The only record played was... Yup. Later in the week there was a party at someone's house while the parents were out. For Sale was all we heard in the darken house until someone turned on a light and "Turn off the bloody light" was yelled out. The light was extinguished and the snogging continued. A beautiful ending to 1964. Could not have had a better Senior year.

#Autobiography #Kano Nigeria #Beatles For Sale #Senior Year #Snogging

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatles_…