Going through my email this morning turned up the latest from farm policy. White House has laid out a graphic there that speaks loads about the disconnect between reality and what should be our Subsidy…

Reading note. As a responsible omnivore, I need to know where my food comes from and understand and respect the needs of the fellow creatures whose deaths make my life possible. The chickens that gave…

Sitting out with my coffee as the sun came up this morning I was hearing the distant rumble of thunder. Scanning the horizon line I could see nothing through the haze to explain it. Once…

Exceptional heat in the South A sizzling June heat wave set record high temperatures across much of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and the Florida Panhandle on Sunday. The high temperature at Houston, Texas hit 105…

Hector Thunderstorm Project from Murray Fredericks on Vimeo.Camera Murray Fredericks Editing Lindi Harrison Original Sound Tommy Shutzinger This time-lapse assembly is part of the Hector Thunderstorm Project being produced in northern Australia. The first exhibition…

Houston’s temperature reached 100 degrees on Thursday, setting two records. It marks a record high for the day — the prior record was 97. It also marks the earliest date the city’s temperature reached the…

I took my new toy out with me this morning to see how well it would work in the early morning light…Seemed to do pretty good all things considered.

Kaspa & Fiona have taken over my blog for today, because they need our help. They are both on a mission to help the world connect with the world through writing. They are also getting…

Reflect on the fact that we have just this one life. Stay with this thought for as long as you can bear. What is important to you? What do you want to do about it?…

Sitting out every morning this spring with my coffee mug I have been entertained by the Eastern Bluebirds that have made their home in m y backyard. As I have become acquainted with these beautiful birds for…

Quite a while ago. The temperature yesterday in my backyard hit 95°. The US Drought Map has us at the highest level of drought they differentiate. The good news for the state of Texas yesterday…

I have fallen into the habit of grabbing my morning coffee and heading outside to sit and enjoy the mornings. It’s a big difference from the way I used to start my mornings…Online and checking…

Instead of an “energy industry,” I see a resource addiction that saps money and preserves self-destructive expectations. I see, instead of food and education “industries,” an obesity epidemic and a debt-driven education crisis. Instead of…

Now they keep telling us it’s not the strong winds, it’s not the heavy rains…It’s the lighter than normal rain that is playing havoc with the grid. The brief rains that rolled through parts of…

That I walked on this road of blogging for the first time that took. It was the beginning of a dream. A dream that has branched and grown in ways I could never have foreseen….

When I was “retired” in late 2008 I really didn’t retire. I continued to try and occupy my days with a “job”. So it was that I began to build a online “publishing empire” aimed…

I have found myself spending much more time outside the past few weeks. Moving Trees It all started as I began to study my backyard to figure out where I wanted to move a couple…

Anyone with a garden in Houston knows just how stingy the skies have been this spring. According to the Houston/Galveston National Weather Service office, the period from mid-February to April 17 has been the driest…

Today is Earth Day. A celebration of our Mother the Earth sometimes known as Gaea. My plan to celebrate the day is to spend a big part of it outside in my backyard. The dewberries are…

April 21, 1836…This is the day most Texans celebrate as Texas Independence Day even though that day is officially March 2nd when the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed at Washington0on-the-Brazos. To some historians, the…

“The idea that all this can be reduced to money — that doctors are just people selling services to consumers of health care — is, well, sickening. And the prevalence of this kind of language…

I decided to take a lunch run across the river a week or so ago. After eating my sack lunch with another eastern bluebird I wandered over to the nature trail…This is one of the…

… columnist and former GOP presidential aide Pete Wehner notes, “now that he finds himself intellectually outmatched by Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, and in a precarious situation when it comes to…

For a few years I have refrained in many instances from commenting on the political debate in this country. But the budget discussion this year is beginning to get my need to comment going again….

Refund Status Results

Continuing the conversation from earlier in the month… Forget about May flowers, Houston needs April showers to break a severe drought. The latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor shows 95 percent of Texas now…

Time is a luxury you don’t have, until you wake up one morning and realize you have misplaced your life.- Phyllis Theroux on Keeping a Journal – Kindle Blog.

The “efficiency” of globalization is nothing but a cross-your-fingers fantasy.- Jim Hightower | JAPAN’S EARTHQUAKE JOLTS SHREVEPORT.

The fate of wild salmon and a panic over power plants that no longer answer to human commands would not seem to be interlinked. But they are, in the belief that the parts of the…

Reading Mark Bittman’s blog this morning I saw this lead-in to a link I had to follow: Here’s the thing. A lot of stuff isn’t directly about food, but TB – that’s tuberculosis – is…

RALEIGH, N.C. – For the past three years, American consumers have been on a shopping diet. They cut nonessentials from their shopping lists. They’ve made do. They’ve thought twice before buying. And yet, they’ve continued…

Ladies and gentlemen, the days of unlimited broadband may be numbered in the United States, and we’re not talking wireless this time — AT&T says it will implement a 150GB monthly cap on landline DSL…

And if you missed Annie Leonard in her Story of Stuff, it’s here: Any thoughts? Related articles Annie Leonard Derides Corporate Influences on American Democracy [Video] (fastcompany.com) The Story of Stuff Does Democracy (strongerdemocracy.org) The…

Ironically, then, a month of extremes will end up with an average temperature around 55 degrees, within a few tenths of normal levels. via SciGuy: Houston Chronicle. The first half of last month was the coldest…

Over the weekend the signs of spring began to reach out and shake my senses. Apple trees are breaking bud and sending forth blooms. This has been one of the first winters since we planted…

Not so much this morning…But there is ice everywhere. After days of buildup (again), the snow the prognosticators were promising predicting just didn’t happen. Though most of the state seems to be covered with snow…

Even the threat of snow can cancel school classes… The Houston Independent School District has canceled school Friday, Superintendent Terry Grier announced, saying he doesn’t want to take a chance with hazardous road conditions for…

AUSTIN – Burst water pipes at two coal-fired power plants forced them to shut down, triggering rolling power cuts across the state, the lieutenant governor said Wednesday.Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said this is something that…

Yesterday we welcomed the latest addition to our family. Abigail Nicole… Abigail Nicole was born at 11:10 am on February 1, 2011. Both Mother and Daughter are doing well and will be coming home by…

It’s Sunday morning and we are sitting here with the back door wide open. Listening to a light rain fall outside as the cool outside air filters in. It feels more like spring than the middle of…

“Everybody,” Muir said, “needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” Turns out they were ahead of their time….