back to the point: here's evidence of summer around our house.
one of the not-so-great things about homeownership: recently we had to take out our only old-growth tree. poor thing was dying from the top down and, though we tried to deny it, our neighbors complained ("we can't sleep at night for fear it will fall on our bedroom") and then finally called for their own estimate to have it taken down. we took the hint (we are bad neighbors!) and paid 500 bucks to have it turned into mulch. where there once was tall, healthy jeff (when you have only one old tree, you give it a name!), now there is only a big empty hole. it was a sad, sad day.
any suggestions for what we should replace it with? we're thinking deciduous, definitely a mimosa (tho most consider them weeds, i love them!) and maybe a tulip poplar?
fortunately, other things continue to thrive.
this is what we started with this spring...
and this is what we have out front now! those bushes (variety of st. johns wort) are almost as tall as i am, and the lambs ear started out as just a sprig from tracy's parents' yard.
the passion flower is even producing fruit. anyone know anything about passionfruit jam?
and this thing - we don't know what it is? - is going crazy. we get one of these WOW flowers every day. a flower per day - a nice way to measure the passage of summer.
a short post today because though i've certainly lingered on chatham and pittsboro politics on a blog ostensibly only about tracy's and my daily life, these politics are potentially more charged.
still, after my post a while back about the future face of our country, i thought thiswas an interesting follow-up. california projects in the next 3 years it will become the second state in the country (behind new mexico) in which a majority of students in the public schools are latino. this, as the article suggests,
raises questions of whether Latino students should be forced to assimilate or schools should adapt to students. Specifically, how should students with poor English-language skills be taught in a state that has essentially tossed out bilingual education? What subject matter should students be taught and with what books?
some serious questions, seriously related to my work, so i'm interested. but is anyone else interested just because it's crazy that only a few years back cali was a majority-white state? crazy.
do you ever wonder what the phrase "let the cat out of the bag" is about? i mean, what is the cat doing in the bag anyway? and why is it a big deal if he gets out? while we played no agent in the deposition of said cat, there was nonetheless a cat - in fact, cats - in the bag. were someone to let them out, we would certainly want to know who.
credit to tracy, today's writer and contributing photo editor (who openly admits he's the one who takes all the pictures of the cats).
that's about all we heard last night at the county commissioners' performance of "sell chatham today! part 1." the n&o covers the unprecedented meeting at which our favorite three approved 11 new subdivisions in chatham. congrats to the paper for pulling a story together - for all our best efforts we couldn't make out a word said through the faulty mic system and commissioner mumbles (ever want to get away with something? mumble. no one will ever know). unfortunately, last night was a drop in the bucket - albeit a large drop - after these guys' tenure, during which they've approved 10,000 new homes, mostly in the northern part of the county where we live (keep in mind chatham currently only has ~60,000 residents; pittsboro, only ~2500). they're scheduled to take up part 2 of the performance tonight at the district courthouse (developers' race to get a stamp of approval before the november elections = hearings that run over into 2 meetings). it's amazing what the lackadaisical raise of a hand can do: all in favor? the same 3 raise their hands. poof! we get another shopping center.
