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| RED OAK ON 11th AND OLD MILITARY |
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| JUST A GARDEN IN THE WOODS... |
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| ...NEEDS A LOT OF PROTECTION FROM THE CRITTERS.. |
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| ...A LOT! |
It has been a beautiful fall, and hopefully the color will last for several more weeks, even if in varying stages of decline. In fact I like the subtle changes that occur day to day. For example, the ash and poplar trees are beginning to lose their colored leaves and will soon be bare (hastened by this storm), which will emphasize other trees and shrubs and their colors and shapes. Each year has its differences as well. This year the red oaks are mainly turning bronze, rather than scarlet. Last year was drier and they were a deep scarlet-purple, and this year we have ample moisture and they are mostly bronze. Until now there have been no cold nights, and which of these factors or something else has prompted the difference in color is really immaterial, as both colors are beautiful.
Remember the classic ballad, "'Twas Just A Garden In The Rain"? While looking for grouse on the backroads I came across a fenced in (I mean really fenced in) garden or perhaps it is a nursery, way out on Whiting Road south and west of Bayfield. Chain link fences and tall electric fences; obviously erected to keep the deer and other critters from eating the horticultural feast of perennials and shrubs within. It looks like an awful lot of trouble and expense to go to in the virtual wilderness, and if it is meant to be a decorative garden, I would say they are gilding the lily, as the woodland is beautiful indeed without much help. But, as I have said before, there are as many kinds of gardens as there are gardeners, and each of us has our own reasons for doing what we do. And that is as it should be.
North Carolina blog reader Doug Peterson has sent me an email from somewhere in the bush in South Africa, where Doug is teaching at the Mukhanyo Theological College in KwaMhlanga. It is probably a bit of a culture shock for Doug and his wife, but certainly interesting and very rewarding. I hope to persuade him to send some photos of the South African countryside, people and interesting plants and gardens. He sounds a bit homesick for the green, green hills of home.
There is now much dissension and a probable lawsuit over who should pay for the mountains of merchandise, including big screen TVs, that went through the checkout line at a Mississippi Walmart because the food stamp credit cards of shoppers showed no purchase limit. Walmart blames Xerox for a computer glitch, and Xerox blames Walmart for honoring the limitless cards.
How about blaming the people who obviously new they were stealing from the rest of us, and not honoring their cards until they have paid for the merchandise out of their allotments? If they bought huge amounts of food it should last them until their accounts are built up again, and if they bought a big screen TV let them sell it and buy food. A far better solution, however, would be to scrap this stupid credit card program and go back to distributing cheese, flour, lard and other surplus food from a welfare warehouse. In fact, we are all complicit in this and similar, less obvious depredations by allowing these demeaning and abuse prone programs exist.
A few more years on our current path to socialism or worse and we will all be stealing directly out of each others pockets.
There may not be a blog post for a day or two, as I have a meeting on Wednesday in Wausau regarding chemical treatment of ash trees to protect them from the Emerald Ash Borer, and all things considered it is a two day trip. I will analyze what I learn and pass it on in a future posting.
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