STILL STUCK IN THE RASPBERRIES

Wednesday, 8:45 AM.  38 degrees F, wind W, calm.  The sky is overcast with high gray clouds that are lightening somewhat as the morning progresses.  It evidently rained a bit through the night, as everything is wet.  I will have to put on my boots if I am going to do any last yard work.  But the barometer predicts sunny skies.
        Yesterday there was a large flock of migrating native whistling swans on the bay in Ashland, the adults white, the juveniles still gray. Chickadees are being seen around town in increasing numbers.

        I remain mystified by the continuing assault of the DNR and many environmentalists on the non-native mute swans that used to be seen on our Wisconsin lakes, and which helped to keep the local Canada goose populations under control by their aggressive territoriality.  They are stately and beautiful bids, but non-native, and so they have been pretty much eradicated, while the non-migratory geese become more and more of a problem.  The native whistling swans only migrate through and I don't see how they are much affected by the non-native mute swans.
        The election is over and I feel the way I felt a few days ago when I nearly got stuck in the blackberry blow down.  Bloody and torn but basically intact.  I could go on and on with my own analysis, feelings and observations but I won’t, except to say that the divisions are still there after a very close election with no true mandates.  The deficit is still there, inflation is still there, waiting to pounce… and I think we will have basically the same situation going “forward” as we have had in the past four years.  The House is still Republican, the Senate still narrowly divided, the mid-term elections are just two years away,  and the President’s victory speech was another campaign speech, so here we are, still stuck in the raspberries.