SOW THISTLE

A LARGE PATCH OF SOW THISTLE ALONG HWY. 13...

...DANDELION-LIKE FLOWER...

...AND SEED HEAD

Wednesday, 8:45 AM.  at the ferry dock, 62 on the back porch.  The sky is overcast and cloudy and a thunderstorm with significant rainfall is in the offing.  The humidity is 88% and the barometer is diving, now at 30.09".

   We are on our way to Wausau, Wisconsin today to attend a meeting of regional city foresters tomorrow morning, and then will proceed to Rhinelander Thursday afternoon to pick up a load of potted native ferns to bring back to Bayfield for a landscape restoration job we started a year ago, so there will be no post for a day or two.  

   Buddy got so upset with having other dogs in his home that he decided to run off yesterday afternoon.  He evidently never went very far, as we found him in a neighbors yard, but he was loose in the woods for a number of hours (probably chasing chipmunks).  Anyway, his competition has gone home to Ohio and things are back to a semblance of normal, but Buddy is stiff and sore from his escapade and expects us to feel sorry for him, which we definitely do not.

   Sow thistle, of which there are several local species in the genus Sonchus, in the Sunflower Family (Compositae), are a common field and garden weed worldwide. When I have some time I will properly identify this species.  They are a pretty plant both in bloom and in seed, and the young leaves are edible and evidently very good, as there is an Italian spaghetti dish made with them.  Sow thistles have been used for food since ancient times.

   Being closely related to the dandelion, sow thistles share many of its herbal qualities,  among which are use as a diuretic and as a treatment for gout and kidney stones.

   The common name comes from the old belief that the milky sap of the sow thistle helped sows to nurse their young.
   So many weeds are edible and have significant herbal medicine qualities that one wonders which came into use first, the weed or the cultivated crop; anyway they certainly evolved together under the influence of human use and selection.

OFF THE CUFF

As I have said before, I am not a particular fan of Donald Trump, but I see him as the only viable alternative to the Clintons, neither of whom I can stomach at all.  I have come to the rather obvious conclusion that the left-wing press, the Democrats and the Republican elites (they all are desperate to save the status quo) are in collusion to character assassinate this man.

   I have listened to his one-liners, his gaffs and his policy statements closely, and he seldom says what he is "quoted " as saying.  His words are twisted by his adversaries until they are neither his actual statements nor his sentiments.  What is reported as truth are mostly lies and innuendo, repeated often enough that they become believed by many.

   The mainstream press is no longer honest nor objective, if indeed it ever was, and the truth about anything is hard to find these day, for as Bill Clinton famously said, "It all depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is."

   But I still have hope for the future, for to quote Abraham Lincoln, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some the the time, but can't fool all of the people all of the time."