EATING WORMS, AND A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY

PAGODA DOGWOOD

WHITE PINE POLLEN-FILLED MALE CONES

BABY ROBINS

THE RESCUERS

 Friday,  7:00 AM.  64 degrees F, wind calm. The sky is overcast and heavy with rain clouds.  The barometer is down, at 29.65".  the humidity is 89% and more rain looks inevitable.
   Short blog this morning, due to picking up flats of native plants for tomorrow's planting of the Brownstone Trail's new east entrance.  If this weather keeps up we will have to postpone the planting until Monday.
  We had really violent rain squalls yesterday, which produced torrential rains and tossed a baby robin out of its nest in the spruce tree in the front yard.  Neighbor boys Cooper and Gabriel (left to right, above) found it on the ground and we managed to get a ladder and place it back in the nest with its three other siblings while the upset parents flitted around us.  The boys mother said if we weren't successful she would adopt the chick and feed it herself, to which Cooper replied, "Gee, Mom, you'll have to eat worms and puke them back up.  Neat!"
   The pagoda dogwood, Cornus alternifolia, above is in front of the Reiten Boatyard Condominiums on Wilson and Second Street.  It is the best I have ever seen.
   The white pines, Pinus strobus, are shedding their pollen in copious amounts, much to my discomfort.  The huge trees look like they are festooned with yellow ribbons.
  Edward Snowdon is fast becoming a 21st. Century version of "The Man Without A Country," seemingly destined to spend the rest of his days in airport transition terminals, which is probably worse than a federal prison sentence.  The President seems O.K. with that, as it saves the Administration the embarrassment of a sensational, tell-all trial.  It is a perfect example of the new management philosophy of doing nothing about the current crisis while waiting for a new one to eclipse it.