Lichen and Moss and Hoof-prints - OH MY!

We are nearing autumn weather for real. It's quite chilly at night and pleasant in the day time. We even had a rain while we were out of town.

As a consequence of cooler weather and some moisture, things are getting pretty.


This is one of my favorite rocks. It sits at the base of one of our oaks and has a fair amount of both lichen and moss on it. In the hot summer weather, both are brown and appear dead. It's taken some getting used to the seasons here, and I still have a ways to go. In the mid-West, the dormant season is winter. The same was true when I lived in Mississippi, in San Diego (as much as it has a dormant season), and in New Mexico.

Not so here. The plant kingdom chooses its period of rest to coincide with the ridiculously hot, dry weather that we get in the summer. Granted, there are a trees that lose leaves in our relatively mild winter, and few flowers bloom then, but Summer is the season of brown.


This was taken at the base of our rock wall. I suspect it was made after the rain, but what I don't understand is how one hoof-print is inside another. . . . anyone got an answer?

I'm guessing deer, but it seems awfully large for that. Speculation??


Then there's my latest bit of movie review cum philosophy.

We went to see In the Valley of Elah today. What an incredibly good but incredibly disturbing movie! See it.

I'm convinced that most young Americans, those of the age to be serving in Iraq, are simply not equipped mentally or emotionally for a war of this type. And we, as a nation, are equally ill-equipped politically and philosophically.

These young people are sent off to fight a war with an invisible enemy. No one, including a child, can be assumed trustworthy and presumed bomb-free. Into that go our warriors who have grown up in a world that believes you don't shoot a man in the back, protect women and children, and play "fair". Faced with a situation in reality that means that simply stopping to offer aid may endanger their life and that of their mates, they are forced to take actions that they were taught since childhood were abhorrent. I don't want to say too much and ruin the movie for others, but being based on a true story, it brings the result of this other-worldly experience home in a most disturbing fashion.

Added to that is the political reality that says our leaders aren't free to "bomb them to dust" as one character in the movie suggests. We've become so sensitive - oh, I guess it's really so attuned to the media and polls - that we will put our soldiers lives at risk rather than risk the bad publicity of civilian deaths. Don't misunderstand me, I'm not in favor of killing civilians, but I don't know how you tell who the civilians are in this war. And I've yet to figure what we are accomplishing.

Let's see, no weapons of mass destruction, no chemical weapons, conditions for residents are worse than when we landed. . . . oh, I remember, Shrub said we needed to invade Iraq 'cuz "they tried to kill my Daddy." For real. I couldn't make that crap up. Do you suppose the Shrubbettes think we've evened the score yet?