Lilies and More Agapanthus with Visitor

The difference in lighting is because the above flowers were touched by the sun and the photos below were in the shade.

Agapanthus

Agapanthus is a flower from South Africa. Here we see it everywhere. It is a favorite for roadway medians and minimall planter boxes as well as PUDs and apartment complexes. I think that is because they have long green leaves that don't die down so add green to the landscape all year long. My sister's back yard, she lives in a PUD, was edged with agapanathus bulbs. When her gardener thinned them she always had lots to spare so I asked her for some. She gave me all of three bulbs. It took several years but I now have a row of pots with these pretty flowers that I keep along the front of my house. I enjoy seeing them bloom at the beginning of summer every year.

Thunder Storm

We went out to view this big rainbow and it started raining. We sat in the rain and enjoyed seeing the rainbow...Then I ran in the house for my camera. The rainbow lasted for awhile. It was a complete arc and wonderful to see. The rain drops were big and warm and reminded me of the times my children loved to play in this kind of rain. They would splash the puddles that formed with their tennis shoes. And just have a fun time of it. I took the photos from my car port though my camera can stand a bit of rain.

Then I looked in the other direction and saw the orange sunset.

This evening we took our coffee out to enjoy the cool air, but my son was having some problems. He sometimes rants and raves and makes my life miserable. I took my coffee to my room and am waiting for him to settle down. He has schizophrenia.

I was reading that there are new meds for schizophrenia but then I read the side effects. My son will not take meds though he did back in the beginning of his illness. They made him feel very sick. That may be why he will not even take an aspirin when he has a headache. Anyway after reading about the side effects of the current meds I could never encourage anyone to take them. I do get upset but then the storm is over and my son settles down and I see what a great person he really is. So I let the anger of the moment flow over me and fade away.

The things some people do...

While I have not watched the trial daily, I have watched and read news about Casey Anthony. It is hard to miss. Husbands and wives that murder spouses, children doing in their parents, and parents that kill their children make the news. Everyone wants to know about and most of all to understand why. They said that Casey Anthony cried in court today. Casey has not been found guilty by the jury so I cannot say she did kill little Caylee. But to me whatever the jury says I tend to believe she did. And I wonder, why? Why do some people feel that getting rid of another person is what they need to do? Susan Smith, Scot Peterson, and all the others that ruined their own lives by taking the life of those that loved them must have something totally missing in their brains and hearts. They must be self centered selfish people. The rest of us see what these people do and we cannot really understand the why of it.

In our area we have had three family murder sucide cases. Bright beautiful children were murdered because the parents couldn't go on with their own lives. Things may look bad today, but there is always tomorrow. There is always hope.

Casey could have let her parents raise her child.

Pit Bull

On June 18th a seventy-five year old woman was the victim of a horrific bit bull attack. Her neighbors two dogs came through her fence into her back yard and mauled her. She lost her leg and suffered damaging wounds on her other leg and an arm. The dogs, along with eleven puppies, were put to sleep, but that doesn't help the victim of the attack.

Pit bull dogs are the creation of humans. They are bred for fighting and seem to revert to that at unexpected times. There is no reason to preserve the breed. There are people that say pit bull dogs are only dangerous to other dogs but too many children and people, often the elderly, have been harmed by these dogs. With so many other wonderful breeds of dogs to choose from why people choose to have pit bull dogs is beyond me.

Any large dog can be dangerous to children. I had lovely German Shepards at the storage when Hailey was little. They were not trained guard dogs and were totally gentle. I never once left Hailey alone with them. We did let the dogs out at night to wander the yard after the gate was closed. Hailey and I would walk with them when she was older. Still she never played with them alone.

Then we hear about people that let their children grow up with their pit bull dogs as if nothing could ever go wrong. Maybe nothing ever will but parents that take that chance with their children are not thinking. Unless the dog attack is fatal or very damaging to the victim we never even hear about it.

Smoky the Cat

Our kitty Smoky lay down and went to sleep today then passed away in her sleep. Smoky was born here July 5, 2006. We took in her mother and her mother's half grown kitten we named Fluffy Boots six months before. We named mama cat Stormy because she was not very friendly and growled at other cats including Fluffy. She got pg in the spring and had five little female kittens. Stormy went to the vet and didn't have any more kittens. We lost Stormy two years ago...she went out and never came home.

My granddaughter Megan was here and both she and Hailey wanted to keep a kitten. So we kept two. One was black and white and the cutest of the kittens. We named her Tuxie. Smoky was the runt and the one I spent the most time with. Her eyes needed cleaning twice a day until they were well. We named her Smoky because her fur was a dark brown.

Smoky is the kitten at the top.

When the time came both Tuxie and Smoky went to the vet. No more kittens! At the vet Smoky almost died. They didn't know if she would wake up and were very worried about her. They told me that she had a heart murmur. She seemed to be fine when we got her home and she lived an ordinary kitty life usually staying close to home. Tuxie was the wanderer and we worried about her a lot. Once she was gone for two weeks and we were sure we would never see her again. I know that some people think that we need to keep our cats locked up in our houses but they really hate that. So I know we take a big chance letting them roam, but I haven't the heart to jail them.

Pictures of Smoky

After my heart attack and my cancer op, Smoky began to visit the neighbors and not come home for days. More worry. When she came home she would sleep near my feet and seemed to want lots of attention. But soon she was gone again. 

Smoky was gone almost two weeks this last time and then one morning she was back. She was very thin but tucked into the food and began to put on weight. And she stayed home. Then this morning she seemed to fail. Our cats and other pets are like some people. Some are just not destined to live to old age. We put Smoky at the edge of my flower garden. It is a pretty place with all the flowers blooming.

Good Bye Smoky. You were loved.

First Admendment

I just read about the beauty contestant that tried to give a good answer to a bad question. She did not agree that the Quran should be burned as a right of free speech. Burning books whatever they are seems more like censorship than a right under the First Admendment. I also need to add that the First Admendment is there to give us freedom of speech not to give us the right to stop others from speaking.

I think she gave a very good answer to the question and the judge that was so pleased that she lost just doesn't get what the First Admendment is really all about. I wrote this as a comment.

Free speech is respecting the ideas of others even when we don't agree with them. Burning books is not free speech and while we do not make it a crime to burn the words of others, unless we start a forest fire, burning books is censorship and that has nothing to do with free speech. I never watch beauty pagents...that is just me taking advantage of my constitutional rights.

And if anyone wonders...some censorship is necessory...the best example of this is child porn. The beauty contestant mentioned lines we shouldn't cross. These lines are created by our society and make living together and living with ourselves possible.