Oh Yard

I was just looking back at pictures of last year to see what was doing what where and it seems like we might be a hair behind schedule with some things. But dang, my roses look so much better this year. I told you all about my plan to line the front of the shed with hollyhocks? I’m throwing this year’s corn in there, too. We’ll see how it goes. But I figure that the hollyhocks aren’t going to do much but throw down roots this year and, next year, when they’re doing their thing, we’ll put corn some other place.

But I am still questioning whether hollyhocks are a biennial or a short lived perennial. Because if they really grow one year, bloom the next, and then die, don’t I want to plant hollyhocks where I have my hollyhocks this year so that I will have blooms next year (because the seeds they spit out this year presumably would grown next year and bloom the year after that)?

My new glads are doing something, but the other spiky thing I put in a sunny spot does not seem to be. I think it’s just too wet for it there. But the black-eyed susans Liz gave me seem to be taking off after some uncertainty after the flood.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is just loving this wet weather. Where once we had a kind of floppy young tree, it now is standing under its own weight. I’m still keeping it tied to the bamboo for the time being, just for some support, but I think it will be fine on its own soon.

I don’t know how the lily-of-the-valleys are doing. The one Liz gave me, like the black eyed susans, seems to be kind of getting its bearing after the flood, but the ones I planted don’t seem to be doing anything.

And I have yet to see any sign of the sunflowers. Well, I take that back. The biggest seeds have unearthed themselves. So… yeah, that’s probably not going to happen. Luckily, I’ve still got marigold seeds from my hero of gardening, so, if all else fails, I’m going to just try to plant a shit-ton of marigolds there. But I’m giving the sunflowers a few more days. I swear, the thought of reseeding that bed for a third time makes me want to drink.

I’m thinking about a major reworking of the irises. The truth is that those side beds along the driveway are just a mess. I’d like to get everything valuable out of them and just let it be a place that gets either mowed or converted to daylillies. Something, as I constantly say, that can just be mowed down in the fall.

Anyway, that’s what I like to think about–things that will happen with my yard.

So, is Representative Joe Towns an Idiot or Does He Just Think We Are?

There was some drama up on the Hill yesterday. Speaker Williams collapsed at the podium. Turns out he’s fine. However, while he was on the ground, the reporter for the AP, Erik Schelzig, attempted to report on the story in a way that upset Legislators.

You can read all about it here and here and here and here.

I’m with Michael Silence here.

Memo to Joe and Stacey: What’s “despicable” is the arrogance of government displayed once again today and the pathetic political pandering lawmakers have engaged in, especially in the last two sessions. Dudes, that chamber ain’t yours. It belongs to all Tennesseans.

Don’t pretend now like you have decorum.

Anyway, so Joe Towns rushes to score political points by introducing a resolution to urge “the chair of the Capitol Hill Press Corps to restrict access to the House Floor by a certain member of the press corps.” Yes, they’d like to abridge the freedom of the Press. Good luck with that lawsuit should you pass this nonsense.

But even worse, in the resolution, it says, “a member of the Capitol Hill Press Corps acted without thought and good judgment in attempting to take photographs and thereby needlessly hindering emergency medical personnel from providing necessary medical care.”

The emphasis is mine, because this is a lie. Just a flat out lie. And Channel 4 has the video to prove it. Even if you don’t like what Schelzig did, you have to be taken aback by the bold-face lying on the part of Towns in order to score political points. Towns, we can all see what happened. Appropriate behavior or not (and obviously, I am on the side of appropriate), Schelzig did not hinder medical care.

This is really creepy behavior, I have to tell you–to watch a politician just so blatantly change the truth and try to instill his lie into the public record instead. I mean, I’m sure it goes on all the time, but to see it happen? To be able to see with your own eyes what went down and then to see what Towns puts forward as the truth to be voted on?

Gives me the willies.

But let’s not end on a down note. Instead, let’s end with the funny. As JR points out:

Rep. Joe Towns has introduced a resolution (HR0371 – info here, download here) to urge the “chair of the Capitol Hill Press Corps” to revoke Erik Schelzig’s designation as a member of the press pursuant to House rules.

Of course, Schelzig himself is the chairman of the press corps.