You probably are familiar with those calendar pads where each page (date) has a different message. Some examples of the calendar pads are topics like: historical events, word-of-the- day, joke of the day, famous sayings, dogs doing funny things, cats doing strange things, people you might meet at Walmart, etc. You’ve got the idea.
Each day I wake up wondering what bizarre thing the guy in the White House will do.
Well, the current resident of the White House has his own calendar pad. This pad contains things he can do to offend the American public (aka the idiots who elected him and still support him). They might be
1.) Put a 50% tariff on Canadian imports.
2. Build a wall through Big Bend National Park.
3. Change the name of the Gulf of Mexico.
4.) Start a war in the Middle East that results in higher gasoline prices.
5. Name an aircraft carrier that honored Doris Miller, a Black sailor who fought the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, to the president’s name.
6.) Threaten to annex Greenland.
7.) Rename something today.
8.) Insult Trevor Noah.
9.) Sue somebody, anybody.
10.) Announce a new measure that restricts freedom of speech.
11.) Insult a prominent American woman.
12.) Complement a foreign dictator.
13.) Stop vaccinations in America.
14.) Revoke visas to 200,000 asylum seekers.
15,) Add $1 trillion to national debt.
16.} Insult an American armed forces division.
17.) Dishonor fallen American service members as “suckers” and “losers.”
18.) Dismiss the sacrifice and emotional distress suffered by American sailors during their grueling 274-day deployment in the Arabian Sea.
I am sure that readers can add more to my short list.
Is there anyone who has witnessed this summer’s events who doubts that we are experiencing global warming? Knowledgeable people believe it’s real. The major skeptics are politicians who don’t believe in science.
Here are my observations:
The earth’s temperature is rising. A quick look at temperatures in the United States and Europe.
Forest fires in North America and Europe driven by dry conditions.
Widespread flooding in the United States. Hot temperatures increase evaporation which becomes rain and/or dries the land.
Increase in humidity drive
Animals changing behavior as demonstrated by the increase in shark attacks.
We may not witness glaciers disappearing, Mount Everest ice melting, or Arctic ice shrinking, but scientists have observed and reported on these occurrences.
Georgetown is the county seat of Williamson County, Texas. The population in 2024 is estimated to be 101,344. It is 30 miles north of Austin and is part of the Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos metropolitan statistical area.
Georgetown has many Victorian commercial and residential buildings. In 1976, the city approved an ordinance to recognize and protect the historic central business district. The Williamson County Courthouse Historical District contains 46 structures. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Southwestern University, founded in 1840, is the oldest university in Texas. Georgetown is known as the “Red Poppy” Capital of Texas for the red poppy wildflowers planted throughout the city. Georgetown’s Red Poppy Festival is held in April on the historic square.
Georgetown in the Civil War
Georgetown was only thirteen years old at the start of the Civil War in 1861. The county’s economy was based on farming and ranching.
In central Texas, Williamson County relied less on free labor and aligned more with the state’s slavery sentiment. At the 1861 secession convention, delegate Thomas Proctor Hughes was one of only eight to oppose leaving the Union. On February 23, 1861, the county voted 480 to 349 to remain in the United States.
Texas supplied tens of thousands of troops for the Confederate War Effort. By 1861, over 25,000 Texans had joined the Confederate army, and nearly 90,000 served during the war. Men from Williamson County, including Georgetown, served in various campaigns during the war.
Georgetown honors its Civil War heritage through the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument, which was erected in 1916 outside the Williamson County Courthouse. The monument commemorates those who served for the Confederacy, though it has been the subject of debate over its historical and racial context.
Klan Trials
Between September 1923 and February 1924, District Attorney Dan Moody led a series of trials against the Ku Klux Klan at the Williamson County Courthouse. The trials resulted in five assault convictions against members of the Ku Klux Klan for beating and tarring a white traveling salesman. The Texas Historical Commission wrote, “These trials were considered the first prosecutorial success in the United States against the 1920s Klan and quickly weakened the Klan’s political influence in Texas.”
I had the pleasure of visiting the Austin Steam Train Museum. The museum is home to the Austin & Texas Central Hobby Railroad.
The Austin & Texas Central (A&TC) refers to a model and live steam railroad founded by John Carroll Enders, Sr., in 1931. Inspired by the H&TC, Enders developed a personal railroad that evolved from O scale to HO scale and eventually to live steam, with a permanent site established at the Hi Iron Ranch near Manor, Texas, in 1972. The railroad hosted numerous live steam events and continues under the stewardship of Enders’ grandson, Stephen Balkum.
The following pictures are from my visit. I hope they will inspire you to visit the museum and schedule a trip on one of their trains.
The Royal Armouries is the United Kingdom’s national collection of arms and armour. Once an important part of England’s military organization, it became the United Kingdom’s oldest museum and one of the oldest museums in the world. It is also one of the largest collections of arms and armour in the world, comprising the UK’s National Collection of Arms and Armour, National Artillery Collection, and National Firearms Collection. Originally housed in the Tower of London from the 15th century, today the collection is split across three sites: the Tower, the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, and Fort Nelson near Portsmouth.
The Royal Armouries is one of the ancient institutions of the Tower of London and was originally engaged in the manufacture of armour for the Kings of England and their armies. The Office of the Armoury grew out of the department known as the King’s Privy Wardrobe at the Tower of London in the mid-15th century. Overseen from 1423 by the Master of the King’s Armour, and based in the White Tower, the Office was responsible for manufacturing armour and edged weapons for the monarch and his armies; it functioned alongside the Office of Ordnance, which had responsibility for firearms.
The Armoury oversaw storehouses and workshops at Woolwich and Portsmouth, and at various royal palaces (most notably the Greenwich Armoury, which specialized in richly decorated ceremonial armour). In 1545, it is recorded that a visiting foreign dignitary paid to view the Armoury collection at the Tower of London. By the time of Charles II, there was a permanent public display there: the “Spanish Armoury” which included instruments of torture and the “Line of Kings”—a row of wooden effigies representing the kings of England. This makes it the first museum in Britain.
Abbotsbury Swannery is a nesting colony of mute swans near the village of Abbotsbury in Dorset, England. The Swannery is located on a two-acre site beside the Fleet Lagoon and sheltered from Lyme Bay by Chesil Beach. It is the world’s only managed swannery and is home to more than 600 swans, including about 150 breeding pairs. Swannery Records date to 1393, though it likely existed much earlier. The Swannery is believed to have been founded by Benedictine monks in the eleventh century. Monks from the eleventh-century Benedictine monastery of St. Peter’s managed the swans as a convenient source of meat for its banquets.
O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there; O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep, As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam, In full glory reflected now shines on the stream: ‘Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion, A home and a country should leave us no more? Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave, From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave: And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand, Between their loved home and the war’s desolation, Blessed with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n rescued land, Praise the power that hath made and preserved us a nation! Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.” And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
The Flag that Inspired the Poem and Anthem
Have a great holiday and celebrate America’s 250th Birthday.
The Kew Gardens contains several unique buildings in addition to the collection of flowers and plants.
The Davies Alpine House houses Kew’s collection of alpine plants.
Nash Conservatory was formerly known as the Aroid House No. 1 and was used to display species of Araceae. The building is now used for various exhibitions, weddings, and private events.
The Palm House is a glass house with a frame of wrought-iron arches, held together by horizontal tubular structures containing long prestressed cables that support glass panes. The glass was originally tinted green with copper oxide to reduce the significant heating effect. In front of the Palm House on the east side are the Queen’s Beasts, ten statues of animals bearing shields.
Kew’s third major conservatory, the Princess of Wales Conservatory, was opened in 1987 by Diana, Princess of Wales. The greenhouse contains a collection of dry tropics and wet tropics plants and features many orchids, water lilies, cacti, lithops, carnivorous plants, and bromeliads.
The Temperate House is the world’s largest surviving Victorian glass structure. It contains plants and trees from all the temperate regions of the world, some of which are extremely rare.
The Waterlily House is the hottest and most humid of the houses at Kew and contains a large pond with varieties of water lilies, surrounded by a display of economically important heat-loving plants.
The Bonsai House contains Kew’s bonsai collection of around eighty specimens. Some of the trees are displayed seasonally in the House. The smallest tree is only ten centimeters tall, and the oldest is around 200 years old.
The Great Pagoda is located in the southeast corner of Kew Gardens. It is designed to imitate the Chinese Ta. The lowest of the ten octagonal stories is 49 feet in diameter. The total height is 164 feet. Each story has a projecting roof in the Chinese style. The pagoda was originally covered with ceramic tiles and adorned with large dragons. The dragons were made of wood painted gold and eventually rotted away over time. The walls of the building are composed of brick. The center staircase has 253 steps. 80 dragons have been remade and now sit on each story of the building.
The Japanese Gateway (Chokushi-Mon) is a four-fifths scale replica of the karamon (gateway) of the Nishi Hongan-ji temple in Kyoto. It is surrounded by a reconstruction of a traditional Japanese garden.
Queen Charlotte’s Cottage was built sometime before 1771 for Queen Charlotte by her husband, George III.
King William’s Temple is a double porticoed Doric temple in stone with a series of cast-iron panels set in the inside walls commemorating British military victories from Minden (1759) to Waterloo (1815). It was named after King William IV.
The Temple of Aeolus is a domed rotunda with eight Tuscan columns. The temple was one of three named to honor British victories in the Seven Years’ War. This temple celebrates the HMS Aeolus.
The Temple of Arethusa is a small Greek temple portico with two Ionic columns and two outer Ionic pillars; it is pedimented with a cornice and key-pattern frieze. This temple celebrates the HMS Arethusa.
The Temple of Bellona is a whitewashed stucco temple. The temple’s walls are decorated with garlands and medallions with the names and numbers of British and Hanoverian units connected with the Seven Years’ War. This temple celebrates the HMS Bellona.
Ice House is from the early 18th-century. It has a brick dome with an access arch and barrel-vaulted passageway, covered by a mound of earth.
Kew Palace is the smallest of the British royal palaces. The construction method is known as Flemish bond and involves laying the bricks with long and short sides alternating. This and the gabled front give the construction a Dutch appearance.
The “Queen’s Garden” is at the rear of the building and includes a collection of plants believed to have medicinal qualities. The garden displays plants that existed in England in the 17th century.
The General Museum or “Museum No. 1” contains Kew’s economic botany collections, including tools, ornaments, clothing, food, and medicines. It is designed to illustrate human dependence on plants.
Kew Gardens is a botanical garden in southwest London founded in 1759 that houses the “largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world”.Its living collections include some of the 27,000 taxacurated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. At the same time, the herbarium, one of the largest in the world, has over 8.5 million preserved plant and fungal specimens.The library contains more than 750,000 volumes, and the illustration collection contains more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants. It is one of London’s top tourist attractions and is a World Heritage Site.
The botanical gardens at Kew formally started in 1759, although they can be traced back to the exotic garden at Kew Park, formed by Henry, Lord Capell of Tewkesbury.
Allen Mesch 