Gold finches and brown-eyed Susans (2)

On 20 September 2024. Now we're advised not to cut down coneflowers, brown-eyed susans, bee balm, birds will eat the seeds during the winter. But cut down hostas, they harbour slugs and other insects over the winter. 

We've let them in and now they won't leave

This political poster reads, "For a better future, Vote for none of the above"

  

Be careful who you let in your home, you may not be able to get them out; be careful who you elect, you may not be able to get rid of them. For instance, we’ve had Justin Trudeau as prime minister for nine years, that’s three elections, one Trudeau majority and two Trudeau minority governments; he doesn’t care that Canadians don’t want him, Canadians don’t like him, but he won't resign before the next election. One commentator said that Justin Trudeau is "delusional".

Be careful to keep woke and progressive politicians out of office, for them ideology, power, and expediency come before good governance, financial responsibility, and adherence to traditional values. Justin and his progressive cohort have changed this country so that it is unrecognizable, it wasn't this way before he came to office: homeless people are everywhere; more people than ever are visiting food banks; drug addiction is spreading; there is a general loss of morale and growing hopelessness among the population; there is out of control immigration caused by Justin's government and there was no planning for how to house, school, or provide medical services for these people; we have a demoralized, underfunded, and depleted military, gone are the days when we were proud of our military; we have an incompetent government bureaucracy and general incompetence by political leaders; consider the prohibitive cost of buying a home or renting an apartment, no wonder people are sleeping in tents and in shelters; on the world stage Canada is seen as not being serious or trustworthy because Justin Trudeau is not a serious or trustworthy person; the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is now second rate and is constantly woke and shallow; we live in fear of losing our family doctors or getting seriously ill because the health system is broken; Quebec is openly and proudly denying civil rights to its English-speaking population with Ottawa’s approval and support; there is out of control antisemitism in our communities and on university campuses, it's a disgrace; promiscuous, and profligate, and ill-thought out spending has doubled our national debt since 2008, it is now at an all time high of $2.1T, that’s correct, it is two point one trillion dollars; Justin Trudeau enacted the outrageous and unnecessary use of the Emergency Act against the freedom convoy in Ottawa; Justin Trudeau enacts legislation for that which we can't afford and that which invades the privacy of citizens: can it get worse than this? Justin Trudeau's government has done more to destroy Canada than any other government since Confederation. This is no longer "our Canada", this is some kind of foreign entity we don't recognize as the country we once loved. I am pessimistic, I don’t think it can be repaired --Justin Trudeau wrecked it-- it should never have been allowed to happen in the first place.

And now, here is the latest example of Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party incompetence: this government has now spent $67M on buying back guns from the population; after about five years not one gun has been bought; that is, $67M spent on nothing but bureaucrats. This is how our tax dollars are being squandered and how the country is being run. 

The garden on 21 September 2017

Looking at these photographs, it seems I began my Canadian cottage garden in the spring of 2017; here it is in the fall. 

St. Philip’s Anglican Church

 A sunny morning, 6 September 2024.

"A Bonus" by Elizabeth Smart

 

Elizabeth Smart

That day i finished
A small piece
For an obscure magazine
I popped it in the box

And such a starry elation
Came over me
That I got whistled at in the street
For the first time in a long time.

I was dirty and roughly dressed
And had circles under my eyes
And far far from flirtation
But so full of completion
Of a deed duly done
An act of consummation
That the freedom and force it engendered
Shone and spun
Out of my old raincoat.

It must have looked like love
Or a fabulous free holiday
To the young men sauntering
Down Berwick Street.
I still think this is most mysterious
For while I was writing it
It was gritty it felt like self-abuse
Constipation, desperately unsocial.
But done done done
Everything in the world
Flowed back
Like a huge bonus.

Gold finches and brown-eyed Susans

Gold finches balancing on brown-eyed Susan’s, eating seeds from dried flowers.

The garden on 17 September 2016

 

The garden on 16 September 2017

 

The overweening desire for fame

 

What has gone wrong with Western society? Are we in decline or are we just changing? Have we become a society with few moral values or are different moral values evolving?  Are we happier, more fulfilled, better people who think of the other person and not just ourselves?  Are we happy, or are we just full of ourselves; or do we have no introspection, no self-doubt, and no self-awareness?       

Let’s look at Americans. During the last thirty years Americans have become ultra extroverts, every child is told they can become anything they want, they can do anything they want; everything they do is praised; subsequently, there are very few shy and introspective children left. You see people on television, on the game show The Price is Right; when audience members are called to come forward and be contestants they dance, pull faces, do cart wheels, high five a dozen strangers, scream, yell, and even the old have become cards and cut ups despite arthritic limbs and palsy, even the old behave in a way no one would have behaved just a few years ago. Fame and extroversion seem to go together. Look at celebrities, fame and self-promotion are what they crave but these are no replacement for whatever once sustained us as a society; we have abandoned what is traditional at great cost to society and to our very souls. And since traditional values have been abandoned the young have nothing real to believe in but the desire to be famous, nothing sustains them, they have been psychologically impoverished by cancelling both their traditions and culture, no wonder social media are so important to them, we're all famous on social media. 

Today, even small children want to be famous but, like everybody else, not for any real accomplishment but for fame itself; it is fame for just existing, without introspection or thought or education or talent or hard work or love of what you are doing or for caring for other people. The modest person will come in last around here! And since we are all special without doing something that makes us special, then why bother accomplishing anything? Just being ourselves makes us special, we are "special for nothing", like body builders who have big muscles not for doing work but solely for appearance. 

No one is special in themselves and fame is for doing something that is a real accomplishment, for commitment and passion, for something that will possibly make you famous --your self-worth is not contingent on becoming famous-- fame is not just for who you already are, it is for doing something that other people have not done before or few have achieved. Fame diverts you from your calling in life, it diminishes your calling, it prevents you from discovering your calling. And no, you cannot be whatever you want to be even though your grade school teachers told you so. What someone accomplishes is done for its own sake, it is your calling in life, it is never to be famous; fame is a by-product of excelling at what you love to do and, even then, fame has limited if any importance. A hundred years ago DH Lawrence wrote of the “bitch goddess success”, we now have our own god, it is fame. 

Walking to Meadowbrook Golf Course, 31 August 2024